


Lips Like Sugar

by chaoticcollectorchaos_me



Category: 50 First Dates (2004), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 50 First Dates Fusion, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Artist Steve Rogers, Baby Peter Parker, Catholic Steve Rogers, Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Getting Together, Hijinks & Shenanigans, In the Name of Love, M/M, Minor Bruce Banner/Thor, POV Multiple, Peter Quill as comedic relief, Romantic Comedy, Spoiler Alert: The Sixth Sense, Steve Rogers Feels, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, aka the Stony 50 first dates AU nobody asked for, because steve has brain damage okay, but the one I want, repeatedly, tony is tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-07-29 17:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16269083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticcollectorchaos_me/pseuds/chaoticcollectorchaos_me
Summary: Imagine having to win over the man of your dreams...every fuckin' day!Or the 50 First Dates AU no one asked for.





	1. Could You Be Loved

**Author's Note:**

> I love the movie 50 First Dates. Not just because of the plot but also because it's set in Hawaii, a state where I spent my formative years in, and holds a special place in my heart. 
> 
> I saw the movie again a couple weeks ago, and thought to myself "Steve would be such a perfect Lucy, being artsy and blonde, while Tony as the playboy billionaire has to win over the love of his life every single day because Steve forgets about him the next day." And thus the fic is born :D

“Tony Stark, why didn’t you tell me that you’re going into the witness protection program?” Stacy asked. She had spent the most amazing week she ever had in O’ahu. At first, Stacy was unenthused to be going solo on a vacation she supposed to be going with her then-fiance Greg. Greg, who got cold feet in the middle of wedding preparations, and asked for the ring back. Since the honeymoon trip had been planned, she saw no point in asking for a refund and went by herself in this trip meant for two. Meeting Tony Stark in a local bar was the highlight of her trip. The charming billionaire showed her an amazing week in O’ahu, both in and out of bed. Now their week together was over. Standing together at the harbor where they decided to take a walk after brunch, she asked if they could keep in touch but he dropped this bombshell on her. 

“What would be the point in telling you? It would have put your life in danger, darling.” Tony answered smoothly. His beautiful brown eyes were hidden behind a pair of wayfarers. He was wearing a horrendously bright orange Aloha shirt and a pair of shorts. “Corporate spies are after me, sweetheart. I have to go into hiding to protect my techs,” 

Stacy pursed her lips, seeming to come to a decision, “Well can I at least contact you when you get out?” 

“No can do. My identity would have been changed by then. The man you see before would be no more,” Tony interjected, starting to fidget and anxious to leave. 

Damn, this girl is harder to shake than the others before her. What’s with brunettes and being clingy? Tony could practically hear Rhodey’s voice in his head exasperatedly telling him This is why whoring yourself out to horny tourists isn’t a good pastime,Tony

Stacy seemed mollified by Tony’s answer, “Okay. Then goodbye, Tony. How about one last kiss for the road?” She closed her eyes and pursed her lips and started to lean in to Tony. 

Balking at the thought of having to share another wet and sticky kiss courtesy of overzealous lip gloss application on Stacy’s part, Tony immediately looked around for an exit strategy. Seeing a guy on a Jet Ski passing by, he immediately jumped at the chance to leave. Literally. 

“Oh no, I just got an alert the spies are coming to kill me. Bye Shirley!” Tony exclaimed, running to catch up to the Jet Ski before he passed the boardwalk he was on. 

“My name is Stacy!” she yelled.

“I know! I changed it to protect your life!” He yelled back. The jetski was almost passing the boardwalk by now, and Tony has no choice but to jump and hope against all hope that he would land on the Jet Ski. 

He did, much to the consternation of his balls. 

“What the hell?!” Jet Ski guy exclaimed, “Dude, what the fuck is your problem?!” 

“I’ll explain later, and I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you make it fast,” Tony said. 

“You got it, brah.” Jet Ski guy grinned, seemingly mollified by the promise of money, but not before recognizing him, “Hey, aren’t you Tony Stark?” 

“Yup, the one and only. And yes I will take a selfie with you after you get me outta here.” 

Jet Ski guy laughed and said, “How’s your balls?” 

“Killing me,” Tony answered and patted the guy on the shoulder, “let’s get me outta here.” 

\-------

Hawai’i was not Tony’s first choice for recuperation. After the accident and open heart surgery to fix his heart defect and install a new pacemaker (which he designed himself, thanks very much doubting SI board members), the crisis of conscience and faith that lead to shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of SI, combating the injunction Obie filed against him and gaining back his share of the controlling interests, his well was tapped out. Pepper persuaded him to take a couple of weeks off and relaxed somewhere far away from the hustle and bustle of New York City. 

At first, he wanted to go back to the Malibu estate. The California sun would do him good. Plus, he hadn’t been there in forever and he quite missed the cliffside estate with its floor-to-ceiling glass walls that let in natural lights. His workshop in Malibu was also stocked with everything he needed to tinker and invent new techs for SI. After his health scare, he saw how arcane the field of biomedical engineering was and how sub par medical devices that are currently on the market are. Once again the world needed Tony Stark to show them the way. So it looked like he had a new task to revolutionize the field of medical technology. This hiatus from the corporate world would also hopefully give him a chance to work on his magnum opus: the arc reactor technology. 

Sustainable and renewable energy source was what the planet needed right now. Fossil fuels and coal could only go so far, and with reserves depleted developing a new source of energy was of the utmost importance. While Tony managed to miniaturized the arc reactor and made a functional prototype that powered the Stark Tower back in New York, this current prototype was only viable for 5 years and at the moment was not cost-effective enough for the investors to go gaga over it. His new project then would also include increasing the reactor’s efficiency and hopefully drive down its costs to make it a more attractive investment and not just a cool science project, as Pepper would say. 

Three months into his Pepper-enforced hiatus, he got bored laying low in Malibu. He was itching to go out and to have some form of human interaction but the humans of Los Angeles were insipid, vapid and conceited human beings who cared only for their outer looks. Taking the jet to Las Vegas would also be a no-no since he promised Rhodey that he wouldn’t be spending what amounts to someone’s 401k in one craps table. Also he was still banned from Caesar’s Palace and Bellagio for counting cards at Blackjack. 

Looking at a holograph of the globe that JARVIS has displayed in front of him, he wondered aloud, “Where do people usually go for some fun but without the added stress of paparazzis, J?” 

“For the average folks, they just have to go to the nearest plaza or Disneyland, Sir. But for you, I suspect nothing short of a trip to Mars would suffice to escape the dodging of the paparazzis.” 

Tony smiled. JARVIS always knew what to say to make him feel better. Glancing at the holographic globe again, he saw an archipelago in the middle of the Pacific ocean. 

“How does Hawai’i sound, J?” 

“The paparazzis might be dissuaded by the exorbitant ticket price and lodging costs.” 

“Excellent. Prep the jet, bud. We’re going to the Rainbow state.” 

One year later, and he was still here in Hawai’i. At first, Tony didn’t expect to stay for more than two weeks. But after his two weeks were up, he found that he was reluctant to leave. Tony seemed to be agreeing with the island way of life. He fully embraced the “island time”, Kona coffee has become part of his bloodstream and Aloha shirts have slowly intermingled with band shirts in his wardrobe. He decided to relocate permanently to Hawai’i, buying a large seaside mansion in Kahala and moving all his boys and some of his cars to his new home. Pepper and Rhodey seemed to approve of the move, seeming to believe that the island is beneficial to Tony’s health. Happy was completely on board with the move. Nowadays, Tony’s bodyguard could be found lounging on the patio, basking in the Hawai’ian sun. 

Though there are some things he still need to get used to, like the 45 mph speed limit on the freeway and the sporadic and spontaneous rains, he could safely say that he found a place to lay down his roots eventually. It also helped that Hawai’i has a very big potential to be the first state to be powered solely by the arc reactor. Due to its isolated location in the Pacific, relying on imported fossil fuel and coal, have not been sustainable. Right now, supplementing the energy need with solar power was the solution, but if Tony had his way (and he eventually would), the arc reactor would be able to supply the energy for the entire state of Hawai’i, from the Big Island to Ni’ihau, and become the first state in the Union to be powered entirely by renewable energy. 

Growing up, Tony wasn’t exactly rolling in friends. As par for the course, being Howard Stark’s and heir to the leading weapons manufacturing company in the world, his friends were more acquaintances. Tony kept people at arms length, never fully trusting that they befriended him on purely altruistic reasons. Rhodey was actually the first friend he had. They had met at MIT when a drunk 14 year old Tony mistakenly entered Rhodey’s dorm room, thinking it was his room instead. From then on, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship that lasted all the way through Rhodey’s commission to the Air Force and Tony’s life as celebrity playboy billionaire. 

He met Pepper when he first took over as CEO of SI at age 21, and Pepper was his executive assistant. Pepper proved that she was formidable enough to handle Tony’s shenanigans and her position as PA quickly included the title of friend. Happy came later on, after an almost kidnapping made Pepper insist on Tony having a bodyguard. Happy’s boxing career has just ended, and Tony had met him at a gym and offered him a job as a driver/bodyguard. So, Tony’s friends have been an amalgamation of people who cared for him and people who are paid to care for him. 

So it came as a huge surprise when he moved to Hawai’i and somehow made friends with people who were not paid to befriend him. 

It was the usual bright and sunny Hawai’ian day when Tony met them. He and Happy has just came back from the North Shore, surveying the possible site for arc reactor installation when they got hungry and decided to stop by Rainbow Drive-In on their way back home to Kahala. Ready to get his loco moco plate and Happy’s Mix plate, he noticed the person in front of him in the line was forlornly looking inside his wallet. With him were three kids, two boys and a girl, all wearing confused expression and clutching at styrofoam boxes containing the boxed lunches. 

“Aw man, I forgot my wallet. Sorry kids, Daddy can’t pay for these. You have to return the food to the nice man behind the counter.” the man said apologetically to his children. He had short, sandy blond hair and a pleasant face.His skin was tanned, indicating he was local or a tourist who have stayed longer than he had to. He looked pained, and Tony immediately knew that this man didn’t have enough money to pay for the boxed lunches he just bought for his children. His kids looked disappointed at the prospect of not eating lunch and it tugged at Tony’s defective heart strings. 

“Sorry about that, brah. I swear I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached to my neck,” he said sheepishly, handing over the boxed lunches back to the cashier attendant. 

But before he could accept the lunches back, Tony piped up, “It’s okay, just put in on my tab. I’ll pay for it.” 

The man and his kids turned to him with a startled look on their faces, seeming to need a moment to grasp what Tony just said. 

“No, man. You don’t have to do that. I’ll just take these kids home and make them something for lunch,” the man started to say. His expression was pained, as if knowing that whatever lunch he would make for his kids, it wouldn’t be a good one because of his lack of money. 

Tony waved him off, “It’s okay, my treat. Besides these kids look like they need a good serving of lunch from Rainbow’s. Right?” he addressed the children with a grin and a wink. 

The older boy seemed to accept this and grinned at Tony. The girl, holding her youngest brother’s hand, looked at Tony as if he was their saving grace. 

Their dad looked conflicted between accepting charity from a stranger and feeding his children. After a moment, he seemed to decide that pride be damned and feeding his children was more important. “Okay,” he said, “Thanks, man. I promise I’ll pay you back,” 

“Don’t worry about it.” Tony said, stepping up to the cashier and giving his and Happy’s order to the man manning the counter and paying for their lunches. 

And that’s how he met his first Hawai’ian friend, Clint Barton and his children, Lila, Cooper and Nate Barton. Clint is a single father, working at the Waikiki aquarium. His late husband, Phil, used to be in the military, stationed in the Marine Corps base in Hawai’i, and was killed in the line of duty. Prior to Phil’s death, the coupled adopted siblings Lila and Cooper from an orphanage in Clint’s hometown in Cleveland and later had Nate through surrogacy. 

After Phil’s death, Clint decided to stay in Hawai’i because the kids have grown up here and uprooting them after their father’s death would be detrimental to their mental state. He also decided to stay because Phil was interned here at the Punchbowl cemetery, and Clint couldn’t bear to be far away. Clint knew that staying in Hawai’i would be tough for a single parent with 3 kids but was determined to make it. From that lunch, an unlikely friendship formed between the two men. Clint would often leave the kids at the mansion if he worked overtime at the aquarium, and in return Tony would have company in addition to his boys when he was working at the workshop. 

Along with Clint came Natasha Romanov, who also worked at the Aquarium. Natasha was a red-haired Russian woman, beautiful and took shit from no man. Tony tried to proposition her once, and it ended with Natasha threatening to castrate him and threw him in the shark cage. And Tony only need to be told “No” once. 

Natasha was the kids’ godmother and Nate’s biological mother. Natasha and Tony got along well. Natasha seemingly immune to his charms and shenanigans, not shying away in telling Tony when he was being an ass or when he needed to eat more than coffee and Reese’s Peanut butter cups for a meal. Three months after meeting Tony, she and Pepper met while Pepper came down to visit and Pepper practically begged Natasha to quit her job at the Aquarium and become Tony’s PA, because apparently Happy couldn’t handle Tony’s antics after he let Tony took the Audi R8 out for a spin in downtown Honolulu. 

Natasha agreed, and just like that Tony had a new PA, a new friend (Rhodey would always hold the BFF title until the day he died, okay) and a couple of Santa’s little helper in the form of Clint’s spawns. 

So yes, Tony’s pretty invested in Hawai’i. And after relinquishing the CEO throne to Pepper, taking the position of Chief Technological Officer and Head of R&D of Stark Industries, he was here to stay. 

\-----

 

“Stark, it’s been two days and you haven’t left the workshop.” Natasha’s voice pierced through the cacophony of bass and drums that filled Tony’s workshop. 

Tony jumped at the unexpected intrusion by his PA, “Christ, Nat. Don’t do that. Don’t you know I have a heart condition? I have a pacemaker in me, you know. What if it fails?” 

“You designed it yourself. Nothing short of an act of God will short circuit it,” Natasha calmly arched her perfectly threaded eyebrow. 

“Touche.” Tony answered, noting Natasha came down to the workshop with a fresh cup of coffee and set it down on his table, instead of handing it to him. “What do you want? I’m busy.” 

“No you’re not. I’m your PA, I know your schedule better than you. You’ve finished the latest prototype of the arc reactor and the new updates for the StarkPhone OS just came online. You’re hiding down here,” Nat answered. 

“Okay you got me there,” Tony took a sip of his Kona coffee. After all this time, it still amazed him how he managed to live without having Kona coffee everyday. Now if he were to fly back to New York, he’d probably turn his nose up at the stuff they tried to pass off as coffee over there. 

“I’m just messing around with DUM-E’s code, trying to make him stop making motor oil smoothies. I almost drank one yesterday before I realized that’s not how Kale was supposed to taste like.” 

Natasha hummed, “How was your date with Stacy? You saw her off at the airport?” 

“Stacy? I thought her name was Shania,” 

“It’s Stacy,” 

“Well, you’d know better than me.” Tony acknowledged, “Yup, she’s gone. Had a good time in Hawai’i and now back to the ole humdrum of the corporate life.” 

“And you seem to be adding another notch on your belt.” 

“At this point, it’s all notches and no more belts,” Tony grinned. Natasha serenely stared at him with her bottomless green eyes. 

“Why are you so adamant with having one-night stands?” she asked. 

‘We’ve been over this, Nat.” Tony sighed, “It’s just easier on both parties if all we had was just some no-strings-attached fun. No fuss, no muss.” Tony got up and went over to where a prototype of the newest version of a dialysis machine that will revolutionize renal disease treatment was located. If he had to have this conversation again, might as well do it with his hands occupied with something. 

“No, that’s not the real reason.” Nat countered, following him to the dialysis machine “I think you’re afraid of commitment. Let me guess, your college girlfriend cheated on you with an older guy?” 

“No, actually it was my boyfriend. He dated me was because his Dad wanted to use our relationship as blackmail material so Howard will sign a business deal with their company,” 

“Ouch.” Natasha seemed taken aback. 

“Yeah,” Tony shrugged. 

“Well, I hope you shot that asshole’s dick off,” she calmly said. 

“Whoa, okay…” Tony warily looked over at Natasha, “What’s with the homicidal impulse so early in the morning? Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine. Some tourist who doesn’t know how to drive cut me off this morning,” Tony nodded, still not entirely convinced Natasha was telling the truth. 

“And I’m sorry for the harsh talk this morning, but I’ve come to know you, Tony. And I know that you’re lonely. Sure, you have Clint, the kids, Happy, Pepper, Rhodey and me. But when we go home, who’s there for you?” 

“Well technically, Happy lives here. Clint and the squirts practically live here, they’ve colonized the sun room, the living room, the kitchen, the pool and everywhere else. Also, I gave you a room here, all you have to do is just use it. JARVIS is here, So are DUM-E, U and Butterfingers. See, not lonely. Plenty of people around me.” he answered. 

Natasha continued to stare at him. She didn’t seem convinced by his reasonings. 

“You need someone, Tony.” 

“Yeah, well maybe I’m just one of those people who are meant to be alone, Nat.” Natasha thought he looked melancholic for a beat. This is the Tony she sometimes saw a glimpse of when he was playing with Lila and Cooper, or babysitting Nate. Tony wasn’t meant to be alone. Before meeting him in person, all she knew about Tony was limited to what she read in the gossip magazines. The genius, playboy, billionaire who charmed the pants off everyone. The genius inventor who succeeded in every field he dabbled in. One of the richest man in the world who could have anything he could dream of. It was only after getting better acquainted with Tony that she realized what a big heart the genius had. Clint’s story about Tony paying for his and the kid’s lunches when they first met was interesting enough. Natasha knew that Tony has paid off Clint’s mortgages and contributed heavily to the kids’ education savings, without Clint’s knowledge. His new SI subsidiary, Stark Resilient, provided prosthetics and life-saving medical devices to hospitals in Hawai’i at a heavily subsidized pricing, and was made free for all veterans. He invested heavily in the protection of Hawai’i’s beaches and education, and was driven to make Hawai’i the first state to run solely on renewable energy because he knew that tourism was not the only thing Hawai’i could offer to the world and to its citizens. 

Tony was one of the most selfless man Natasha knew, and although he was not a man without faults it made her heart ache to see such a good man. Knowing how much he has gone through in his life, absentee parents and the betrayal of his mentor, just made her sympathize for her boss even more. 

“I don’t think that’s true,” she finally said, “But I do think it’s time you joined the land of the living and go out for a drive. Didn’t you say you’ve been dying to take out the newly restored Camaro?” 

Tony brightened up at the mention of his new car, “Well yeah. But I don’t think she’s ready for the road. I still need to replace the master cylinder, the clutch gear and the windows still don’t have automatic gears. I have to move it using manual cranks, for god’s sakes.” 

“You’ll be fine. Take it down the Nu’uanu Pali for a spin. You’re the best mechanic in the world. You know that car inside and out. What’s the worst that could happen?” Natasha encouraged him. 

Well, Tony is the best mechanic this side of Mississippi and the world. What, indeed, was the worst that could happen?


	2. Underneath It All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Forgetful Stevie...your lips are so damned juicy

This was the worst that could happen, Tony thought. Stranded at the Pali highway, with a broken down car. Dammit, he knew he shouldn’t have taken the car out for a drive. She wasn’t ready! This was the last time he’d ever, ever take Nat’s advice on anything mechanical. Thankfully, he managed to get ahold of Happy, but the man was currently all the way over on the Windward side of the island, being forehead of security, and Tony hadn’t wanted to bother any of his Stark Resilient employees in Honolulu, since it wasn’t in their job description to pick the boss up from the side of the highway. So now, he has at least one hour to kill and with nothing else to do, he decided he might as well get some late breakfast at one of the roadside diner he spied along the way. 

After walking for 2 miles, he reached the diner sporting a banner proclaiming to be the Hukilau Cafe. Tony went inside, and sat on the counter. He checked his phone while waiting to be served. Nothing noteworthy going on in the world, Happy was still on the way, and the angry text he sent Natasha blaming her about his car breaking down was only answered with laughing emoji. 

Ugh, Tony was so firing her. 

Or cutting her pay. 

No, nevermind. Natasha scared him, he’s not gonna do anything to her. 

“Aloha, honey. How are you doing today? What can I get for you?” a matronly older woman approached him with a carafe of coffee. 

“Aloha, Sue.” Tony answered, taking a peak at the name tag the lady wore, “I’m doing just fine, thank you. My car broke down, so I just need to kill time until they tow my car. I guess I’ll have a coffee in the meantime.” 

“You guess?” Sue countered, putting her free hand on her hips. Tony thought this was what a mother would look like before scolding their unruly children, not that Tony would know. His mom was never the “scolding their unruly children” type. Or the “paying attention to their children” type. “What did you have for breakfast, honey?” 

“Umm, I had some coffee. And my nephew’s Reese’s peanut butter cups,” 

Sue looked exasperatedly at him, “They’re not breakfast. I’ll get you some spam and eggs,” she said decisively then turned and left. “Nick, I need spam and eggs.” she yelled to the cook in the kitchen, who was visible from Tony’s spot on the counter. 

The cook, a heavy set Hawai’ian man named Nick with tattoo on his face, approached him grinning the whole time. “Hey, you like peanut butter cups?” 

Perplexed by the question, Tony answered hesitantly, “Uh yeah…” 

“You want me to put peanut butter cups in your eggs?” 

“No, that’s okay.” Tony shook his head. 

Chuckling, Nick went back to the kitchen while muttering “Peanut butter cups,” and looking at Tony funny. 

Turning his attention back to his phone to check whether any work emails needed his attention, he settled back on his seat at the counter. For awhile he immersed himself in quarterly reports, the results from the latest arc reactor simulation using the new parameters he specified, an email from Pepper reminding him to sign off on the sale of the Howard’s old storage facility in New York. Then something shiny hit his eyes. 

Tony lifted his head up, trying to figure out who’s dickish enough to reflect sunlight to people’s eyes and then give him a piece of their mind, when his train of thought suddenly halted. Sitting in one of the booths by the window was the most beautiful man Tony had ever seen. He was blonde, with broad shoulders and incredible arms, reading a book in his left hand as he propped up a knife that was reflecting sunlight to Tony’s eyes with his right hand. He was tall, if he stood up he would be taller than Tony by at least a head. His grey t-shirt left very little to the imagination, and Tony saw the most ridiculous shoulder-to-waist ratio known to man, and Tony knew supermodels without that proportion. Even from a far, Tony could see his patrician nose, his full lips and the wide set of his brows, all coming together to make a face that Michelangelo should have used as a model when he sculpted the David. 

Tony wanted to stand up and introduce himself to the man, this Adonis he found in some random cafe by the side of a highway, but something stayed him. Just then, the old Japanese man sitting next to him piped up, “Are you staring at me or him? ‘Cause you’re starting to freak me out,” 

Tony turned to the man, condescendingly said, “Settle down and eat your pancakes, huh?”

When Tony looked back around, he saw Sue coming his way with a plate of spam and eggs that smelled amazing. Tony tucked into his breakfast, all thoughts of the Adonis pushed aside temporarily in favor of delicious meal in front of him. 

\-----

 

“I wanted to go up to him and introduce myself. But man oh man, was he hot though…” Tony sighed wistfully. Later on that afternoon, he was at the aquarium visiting Clint. Though Clint was supposed to be giving an ultrasound to the pregnant walrus, Tony’s friend was more concerned with chatting with him and eating the special brownie he procured from god knows where. 

“Why didn’t you?” he asked, wiping the brownie crumbs away from the animal. It wouldn’t do any good if the walrus somehow got baked because of his brownie. 

“He looks local. And you know my rule,” 

“‘Tourists only, no fuss, no muss,” Clint dutifully recited. 

“Got it in one.” Tony agreed, “it’s just easier on both of us, if we never have to see each other again.” 

“I can see why you’d refrain from talking to him. It’d be weird if you were out there shaking your money maker with some other wahine after boinking him.That stink will follow you around anywhere. If he’s totally psycho, he might put a hit out on you.” Clint said. 

“What? Clint, stop eating too many of those brownies. You’re still on the clock,” Tony grabbed the container of brownies out of Clint’s hands. “But man, you should have seen him Clint. It’s like someone made him special just for me.” 

“Speaking of special, I met this blonde bombshell tax attorney down at Starbucks this morning. I told her you the kahuna if she wants to have fun on this island.” Clint waggled his eyebrows outrageously and took out a slip of paper from the front pocket of his work shirt, “You want her number? I got right here.” 

“You’re pimping me out to tourists again, Clint?” Tony sighed, but reached out for the number anyway. 

“I live vicariously through you! Come on, my life sucks. This way when you have fun, I can pretend that it’s me giving it to them and I can get through one more week of working in this hell-hole. No offense, Candice.” he said, addressing the pregnant walrus waiting patiently for her ultrasound. 

“Fine, last one this season. Then you can start pimping yourself out instead of me. Nat tried to talk to me about feelings this morning, and you don’t know how awkward it was until you see a compassionate Nat instead of murderous Nat.” 

Clint shuddered. “Ugh, better you than me. I swear to you she didn’t even break a sweat when she gave birth to Nate, and now she’s all wonky because she thinks you’re filling an emotional hole by having meaningless sex with strangers.”   
Finally getting up from his perch by the pool, he picked up the portable ultrasound and addressed Candice the Walrus, “Okay let’s what we got here, mommy,” he angled the ultrasound sensor in the vicinity of the walrus’ womb and finally stopping when a cute little walrus facial features appeared on the screen, “There’s the little guy. Congratulations, mommy!” 

\----

Telling Clint about his rule yesterday seemed to serve no purpose, because here Tony was. At the same cafe where he first saw Adonis, hoping to see him again. Well, Tony rationalized to himself, I’m just gonna go and see if he’s there. There’s a chance that Adonis might not even be there, because who went to the same place two-days in a row? Certainly not Tony. Not unless he was after something. Or someone. 

So it was completely unexpected when his heart started to beat faster at a glimpse of blonde head, sitting at the same spot as he was yesterday, in the same shirt he wore yesterday and this time in the middle of building what seems to be a house out of his waffles. 

And no that was not adorable at all, shut up. 

Tony willed his heart to beat slowly and sat on the booth opposite from Adonis, making sure he sat far away from the Japanese grandpa that sassed him yesterday and closer to Adonis’ booth. 

Nick spotted him as he sat down on the booth and approached him, “Hey, Mr. Peanut butter cups!” 

“Hey, mr. Could-kill-me-with-one-punch. I couldn’t get enough of your spam. How about your fry some and put a couple of eggs on top for me?” Tony genially requested. 

“You got it,” Nick acquiesced, heading back to the kitchen. On his way, he passed by Adonis’ booth and greeted, “Aloha, Steve.” 

“Aloha, Nick,” Adonis -no, Steve- answered absent-mindedly. His voice was deep and cultured, sending shivers down Tony’s spine. 

Tony stole a look from his perch on the counter at Steve. Steve, a perfect name to go with the perfect man. Adonis did look like a Steve. He seemed to exude that wholesome, boy-next-door, old-fashioned gentlemanly vibe about him. Now if he’s at least bi, then all of Tony’s dreams would come true. 

Just then Sue walked by and spotted him. She looked alarmed at his presence here. Tony thought she finally recognized him as who he really was, since he looked more put together today than he was yesterday. Just as Tony thought she would say something about Tony Stark being at her dinner, Steve’s voice interrupted her.   
“Hey Sue, nice haircut.” 

Sue seemed to take this in stride, as if it’s not the first time she heard Steve complimented her on her haircut, but made an effort to return the compliment, “Mahalo, Steve.” 

She continued on her way to the kitchen, and Tony continued to surreptitiously spied on Steve. He seemed to be on the verge of completing his waffle house, but was having trouble with the last piece that would be the door. Seeing an obvious solution to the construction problem, Tony took a chance and impulsively pick up a toothpick and approached Steve. 

“If I may,” he started. Steve looked up at him with those blue orbs he had for eyes, startled at Tony’s interruption. 

“If you do this,” Tony gestured with toothpick in his hand. He picked up the last waffle piece, pierced the toothpick through the waffle roof and the waffle door to create a hinge for the waffle door to swing about on, “This way you’ll have the door for the little waffle people to come through.” 

Steve looked amazed at Tony’s approach. He smiled sheepishly and said, “Now why didn’t I think of that,” 

“You’re too close to the project. It happens sometimes, the most obvious solutions become unthinkable when emotions are involved.” Tony grinned, thrilled at having the chance to have a conversation. 

“I suppose,” Steve nodded. Then he thrust out his hand to shake Tony’s hand, “I’m Steve. Steve Rogers. Nice to meet you.” 

“Tony Stark.” he replied. They were quiet for a beat, staring at each other and letting the handshake go on a little longer than was appropriate. 

“Well,” Tony cleared his throat, “have a good breakfast, Steve.” he let go of Steve’s hand -Steve’s warm and huge hand- and retreated back to his booth. 

“Wait, I see you sitting there by yourself, and so am I. Do you want to have breakfast with me?” Steve’s voice stopped him midtrack. Tony could feel his face breaking out into a huge grin, as he answered, “Oh, okay, sure.” 

“Excellent,” Steve said, as Tony settled down in the sofa across from him. 

“So Tony, what do you do?” Steve asked, eager to start a conversation with Tony. 

It was then Tony realized that Steve had no idea of who he was. This was a chance for Tony to completely reinvent himself. Tony couldn’t believe his luck. Here he was, sitting in front of the most gorgeous man he’d ever seen and he could finally be with someone without the added burden of his fame and his past. 

“Well I’m an engineer, an inventor and a mechanic. Building and fixing stuff is kinda my thing.” Tony said, giving Steve a very 

“So that’s where the smell of grease and motor oil was coming from,” Steve teased. 

“Oh God, I’m so sorry. I thought I cleaned it all off, I was working on one of my cars this morning. Sorry, let me go wash my hands.” Tony stood up, preparing to head to the bathroom. 

“No, don’t be. It’s just that...the smell of grease and motor oil remind me of my father. He used to be in the Marine Corps’s Corps of Engineers. And he would go on tour of duty for years at a time, and when he comes back home I’d miss him so much that I’d hug him for at least five minutes.” Steve confided, his blue eyes softening as he remembered when he was young, when the smell of grease and motor oil brought comfort to him. He never thought that he would feel this sense of homecoming and ease from someone he just met. 

“And he would smell just like your hands,” he finished with a small smile directed at Tony. 

Tony was speechless. God, was it possible to fall in love this fast? “My hands are available for your smelling pleasure anytime you want.” 

Steve laughed, the most amazing sound Tony ever heard in his life. Steve seemed to laugh with his whole body. His right hand seemed to unconsciously went to his left pectoral as he continued to laugh. Tony imagined a day when he finally get to touch said pectoral himself. 

After he stopped laughing Steve gestured at Tony’s hands and said, “May I?” 

“Knock yourself out.” Tony grinned, slipping his hands in Steve’s warm grasp. Steve brought Tony’s hands closer to his nose and took a deep breath. 

“Yup, greasy just like Dad.” 

Tony laughed. And thus begun the most amazing day in Tony’s life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation for the Hawai'ian words: 
> 
> Aloha: Hello; Goodbye   
> Mahalo: Thank you  
> Wahine: Lady, woman   
> Kahuna: important person in charge of something


	3. Is This Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look at those two shitheads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last update for awhile. Imma go get high with my friends

Tony couldn’t believe how easy being with Steve was. He and Steve have been sitting in this booth at the Hukilau Cafe for god knows how long and they’ve yet to run out of things to talk about. Steve talked about his childhood, being uprooted from Brooklyn to Hawai’i because of his father’s job in the Marine Corps. He talked about at first, how much he hated being here, feeling like an outsider with no friend and no one else to rely on but his parents. But then slowly he made friends. There was the friend he met when he started elementary school, fellow Marine Corp brat, James Buchanan Barnes, who once they passed puberty refused to answer to anything other than “Bucky”. Then as he grew older he gained more friends: Jim Morita, lifelong Hawai’ian; Sam Wilson, whom he met as an undergrad at UH and now as a therapist for the VA, and many more.

In turn, Tony confided in Steve how lonely his childhood was, while omitting a few key details such as the fact that his house was more of a mansion in the middle Fifth Avenue, and that his nanny was really a butler. He told Steve that he used to be a defense contractor, but a crisis of faith and conscience led him to rethink his whole life’s work.

“I realized then, that I have become part of system that’s comfortable with zero accountability. We do defense contracting but who are we really protecting?” he paused, “Am I really in this to protect American lives, or am I comfortable with gaining profits and protecting the bottom line at the expense of someone else’s life. I just felt like I have more to offer the world than to make things go boom, you know. Not that there’s anything with making weapons or things to explode. Hell, I like some good ole fashioned explosions myself, and I support our troops but I don’t want that to be my only legacy.”

Tony was silent for a while fiddling with the straw stuck in his water cup. Steve looked at him intently. His blue eyes, as bright as the Hawai’ian sky exuded understanding and empathy. Tony felt like he could spill everything in his heart to this man and still talked some more.

Steve nodded in assent and said, “I understand, Tony. The defense contracting business, it’s truly a double edged sword. On one hand, someone has to provide all the armament and weapons our troops need to survive. But on the other hand, the things you provide them are used to protect them at the expense of someone else’s life. They may be the enemy, but you can’t deny their humanity.”

“My father used to say “peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy”. Guess that’s how he justified being in this business. He’s keeping the peace by developing bigger and better guns that the other guy. War deterrent, he said. I used to think the lack of war confused him.” Tony said, once again wishing he could go back in time and ask Howard if he really wanted for SI to be the leading weapons manufacturer. What would he think of Tony’s decision to fire Obadiah and devoted SI completely to green energy technologies.

“I’m glad you’ve decided to get out of that business, Tony. If I may ask, what does your business do now?” Steve asked, his face open and honest.

Tony grinned, appreciating the change in topic to something he’s more inclined to discuss “Nowadays I’m all about renewable energy. Did you know that Hawai’i is the state in the Union with the highest usage of solar energy per capita?”

Then he launched into a long winded explanation on his plans to ultimately make Hawai’i fossil fuel independent; how his company was working with the state government to invest more in solar panels and wind turbines and arc reactor technology (although he kinda glossed over that particular technology for a bit since that would totally give away his identity to Steve); how he wanted to set up a fellowship to incentivize more young Hawai’ians to study science and engineering and his recent endowment to UH to build a research institute for renewable energy and biomedical devices.

“-- and with this fellowship hopefully we’ll get more kids to be interested in studying science and engineering, you know. Especially the girls, because I’m telling you Steve, there aren’t enough girls in the STEM field. And God knows we need more of them. They’re not there not because they’re incapable, or aren’t as good in math as the boys. That’s bullshit. They’re not there because nobody has been showing them they can be in tech. And that’s gonna be my latest project, bringing-” Tony abruptly cut himself off, realizing he had been monopolizing the conversation for some time now.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly, “that’s one of my bad traits. My brain works faster than my mouth, so I compensate with talking too much. And not letting anyone getting a word in.”

“Don’t be sorry. I like hearing you talk. It’s great to hear how passionate you are about educating the future generation. We need more people like you.” Steve beamed at him.

Tony could feel himself blush like a schoolgirl. God, what was it about this man that get him, genius playboy billionaire, all twitterpated. “Well- that is- I’m just doing what anyone would have done.”

“You’re doing more than that. You are Tony Stark of Stark Industries aren’t you?” Steve said.

Tony stiffened, his cover completely blown. Ugh why the hell did hell did he think he could pull this off. It must be his Van Dyke giving him away, or maybe the incessant way he kept talking about his daddy issues. Stupid Tony!

“I read about what you did after you closed down the weapons manufacturing division. You’ve been doing so much good, Tony.” Steve cleared his throat, “My best friend, Bucky, came home from Iraq missing an arm. He was so despondent, I had to put him on suicide watch. But then he got a call from Stark Resilient, offering him to be part of the new clinical trial for a new prosthetic available for free for veterans. Without you, I would have a lost my best friend, Tony. That’s what you’ve done, Tony, to people you’ve never even met. ‘Anyone’ wouldn’t do just that.”

Tony was speechless. He knew that the prosthetics he created helped people, but to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, that was the last thing he expected. “Thanks, Steve. It’s good to hear that. And anytime your buddy needs a tune up on the ole prosthetic, just let me know. You guys can come by the house.”

“Oh, you have a house here?” Steve asked.

“Uh yeah. I live over in Kahala now.” Tony said, tilting his head curiously because the news of his relocation from the mainland made headline news awhile back.

“Oh, I must have missed that,” Steve acknowledged, “Well I’ll take you up on that. Maybe we can grab some dinner while we’re at it.”

Tony started. Is Steve asking him out right now? Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, what do you do!!

But before he could give his acquiescence, Sue approached their table telling them she was closing to set up for lunch. After apologizing to Sue for holding up her restaurant, they left the cafe and walked together to the parking lot.

“So what else have you been working on aside the prosthetics?” Steve asked walking them towards a beautiful, vintage 1942 Harley Davidson WLA Liberator that made Tony salivate.

“Nothing, but wondering how the fuck did I never knew this beauty existed!” Tony exclaimed, running his hand over the chassis. The jet black paint and the chrome fittings. He could only imagine how magnificent Steve would look straddling that bike, looking like a conquering bad-ass with 750 horsepower between his legs. Tony has to shift surreptitiously to hide the hard on he knew is building up slightly inside his pants.

“Thanks.” Steve shrugged, cheeks reddening slightly. Seeing Tony being so appreciative of his baby made him feel happy, for some reason. “I’m really proud of her. I modified her myself to my own liking, and she’s worth every penny of debt I’m going in to.” Steve chuckled, looking like a proud Papa smiling down at his offspring.

When Steve retrieved a black leather jacket from one of the compartments attached to the bike, Tony whimpered softly. Steve in a black leather jacket looking like some kind of avenging Hell’s Angel was more than his brain could handle in one day.

“Oh, I gotta go. Sorry, Tony,” Steve looked at his watch, noting that his breakfast with Tony took up almost his entire morning. Thank God it’s Saturday.

“Oh, where are you going?” Tony asked.

“It’s my Dad’s birthday. Every year we’d go up to the Dole plantation to pick a pineapple for his birthday. Him and Ma used to do it when she was still alive, and I’d like to keep the tradition alive.”

Steve was a gorgeous, handsome man who loves his family, and probably little kids and puppies too. And Tony met him in some out of the way diner because one of his cars just happen to break down near the diner Steve happen to frequent. If this wasn’t serendipity then Tony didn’t know the meaning of the word.

“Well then, tell your dad happy birthday from me. And have a good time up at the Dole. I had a great time today. Thank you.” Tony said, moving towards his car that was separated from Steve’s bike by a cargo van.

“Me too,” Steve smiled softly. His eyes lingering at Tony’s feature. His fingers itch for a piece of paper and some charcoal so he can draw Tony’s likeness and keep it close wherever he went.

Tony started the walk to his car when Steve’s voice stopped him in his tracks, “Actually Tony, would you like to have breakfast again tomorrow morning? Same time? Because I have to go to mass at 10. ”

“Oh really?” Tony stopped, “I wish I could make it, but uh, yes I will be there.” Tony smiled charmingly, thrilled to be getting another chance to meet Steve.

Steve laughed with relief. He’s gonna be meeting this charmingly handsome man again tomorrow. And if Steve’s lucky maybe these breakfasts can turn into dinner dates.

“Take care,” they shook hands, and Steve lifted his hand up to his nose again and inhaled, “One for the road.”

Tony laughed at his antics, “Yeah they’re extra greasy now. All that spam grease mixed in there with the motor oil.”

Steve’s crystalline laugh followed, “ _Aloha_. See you tomorrow.”

“ _Aloha_ , Steve. See ya,” As they both walked to their respective vehicles, both men couldn’t help but catch their breaths over the events of the morning. Both felt as if they’ve finally met the right partner, someone they delight to know better, and eventually someone to spend their lives with.

Happy with today’s turn of events, both Steve and Tony decided to dance their own versions of happy dance while hidden behind the cargo van that separated them from each other’s object of affections. Unbeknownst to them, the cargo van pulled out of the parking space, leaving both of them in full view of the other. Tony recovered first seeing Steve right across from him as he was in the middle performing his “inventing dance” and gasped.

‘I uh, I had a bee on me.” he explained, as he jumped into his convertible. Steve, who was also in the act of doing his own happy dance, stopped abruptly at the sight of Tony.

“Alright.” Steve replied. He could his face flaming and knew he was blushing in front of Tony.

“It was a really big one,” Tony added. Steve nodded and turn on his engine, “Bye.”

As Tony and Steve sped away from the Hukilau’s parking lot, the old man that sassed Tony on his first day at the Hukilau muttered, “Look at those two shitheads,” before walking off. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who have read and gave kudos to this work. I'm a new writer and your feedback means a lot to me :)


	4. Slave to Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's trying not to fall for Steve. But can he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg you guys, I haven't had a toke in 7 years and I totally blacked out. Also edibles are dangerous, they hit you out of nowhere. 
> 
> But anyway, new chapter!

Later that day, Tony took Natasha, Clint and the squirts out to play a round of golf. He had promised the squirts weeks ago that they could play as many holes as they wanted. Still riding the high from this morning’s maybe breakfast date with Steve, Tony didn’t mind too much when Clint insisted that he started the tee off. 

 

Clint placed his ball on the grass, stepped back and swung his club at the ball. Unfortunately his backswing was too ambitious and too far from the ball. The golf ball remained on the ground  where Clint first placed it, much to his dismay and to his children’s amusement. 

 

“That is the stupidest looking backswing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Tony muttered from his position next to Natasha. 

 

“I’m gonna take a  _ molokai _ on that one,” Clint said. Then he bent over to pick up the golf ball and threw it in the general direction of where the eighteenth hole was.

 

“No throwing, come on. We’ve talked about this.” Tony complained. The peanut gallery next to him continued laughing at their father’s antics. Natasha sighed exasperatedly, no doubt rolling her eyes behind her shades. 

 

“What are you laughing at, you little hyenas?” Clint challenged, “Come one, let me see what you’ve got. Come on, you heard me. Go, go.” 

 

“Show Papa what you got.” Tony encouraged and clapped from the sideline. If Clint’s kids somehow managed to do full backswing better than him, Tony would laugh his ass off and buy those kids whatever they wanted for Christmas. 

 

Lila, Cooper and Nate obligingly stepped forward and tee up their balls. They lined up their clubs and took a swing using the mini golf club Tony bought for the occasion. With one smooth swing, three golf balls flew a perfect arc, landing near the hole furthest from their path. 

 

Natasha and Tony let out a laugh while Clint sulkily muttered, “Ugh, you kids are clearly Phil’s kids. You’re good at everything.” 

 

“Father of the Year strikes again.” Tony muttered, taking his position on the field. 

 

“By the way, Tones, are you gonna call that sexy blonde tax attorney lady I introduced you to?” Clint asked, speaking far enough away from the kids so they wouldn’t hear what he said to Tony. 

 

“Uh no. I think I’ll stay in tonight with JARVIS and the boys,” 

 

“Oh come on. Clint needs it. I live vicariously through you, remember. Give her the Tony Stark special and send her on an orgasm high back to the mainland. This way I can get through another weekend of watching  _ Yo Gabba Gabba _ on for 12 hours straight.” 

 

“You’re disgusting. No thanks. I’m staying in tonight.” 

 

“What?!” Clint was dismayed. But his outrage was interrupted by Nate calling out to him, “Hey Dad!” 

 

“Not now, Nathaniel Pietro!” 

 

“But your stitches are bleeding…” 

 

“What?” And sure enough when he checked, a red stain was seeping through his shirt. 

 

“Ewww….” the kids exclaimed. 

 

“Aw dammit. Must be my huge backswing. Nat, babe, do you think you can stitch me up tonight after I got back from surfing?” 

 

“Yeah, looking forward to it.” Natasha answered serenely. 

 

“Clint, you might attract some huge predators or something surfing in open waters like that.” Tony said. “Also, since when did Natasha learn how to stitch up wounds?” 

 

“That’s classified.” Natasha piped in. 

 

“What’s wrong with that, Tones? Sharks are the puppies of the sea. They’re peaceful creatures. They only bite if you touch their private parts.” 

 

“And how did you get that bite in the first place, Clint?” asked Natasha. “A shark bit me.” Clint answered openly. Rolling her eyes and not expecting anything better from Clint, Natasha walked away towards to the clubhouse for a tall glass of Vodka. 

 

“I’m telling you that shark theory is starting to catch on, buddy. Might get published in some science journal someday.” Tony said, “now will everybody pipe down, while I whack the crap out of this thing?” 

 

He prepared for the swing, sure that it would take the ball as far as the little hyenas did, or maybe further, and let out a swing. “Yes!” Tony exclaimed. The ball flew in an arch, landing at the same hole the Barton bunch hit their balls to.

 

But it didn’t stopped there, it bounced a few times before it fell off the cliff. “Stay! Stay! Shit! Dammit! No!!”

 

A couple of minutes later here he was at the bottom of a cliff looking for a goddamned golf ball he could have bought a thousand times over. 

 

“Where the hell is that goddamn ball?” he muttered cursing his luck, when suddenly a voice startled him out of his searching. 

 

“Looking for something?” 

 

When he looked up, there was Steve. Steve in all of his muscled and handsome glory, wearing a black Hawai’ian shirt with black linen pants, a combination that emphasized the blue of his eyes. He was barefoot on the beach, and a white lily flower rested on the gap between his head and his left ear. His right hand was holding up the golf ball Tony was searching for. The sly smile he wore on his face made Tony’s heart beat faster. 

 

“Oh my God, what are you doing here?” Tony asked unable to hide his excitement. 

 

“Same thing you are. Looking for my ball.” Steve answered. He walked closer to Tony until he was standing right in front of Tony, looking down at him. Only now did Tony realized just how much taller Steve was compared to him. Tony usually resent people who are taller than him. His Napoleon complex was such that he would wear lifts to taped interviews or photo shoots to make himself look taller. But now, looking up at Steve’s warm smile all he felt was safety and affection. 

 

“This is weird. I can’t stop thinking about you all morning. All day,” Tony blurted out, “I can’t wait to have breakfast with you again tomorrow.” 

 

“I know.” Steve said. He placed his hand, his warm big hands on Tony’s chest and walked him backwards, “And I just want to eat you up.” 

 

“Really?” Tony’s heart was beating on overdrive. God is this the day one of his inventions finally failed him. 

 

“Oh yeah.” Steve said, his voice becoming lower, “Tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day…” 

 

“Okay…whoa!” Tony’s feet caught on a rock and he dropped to the ground. Steve was quick to follow him to the ground and pressed their lips together in a soft kiss. 

 

“Oh, Steve, that feels so good…No, my nipples are too sensitive, stop that,” he giggled. 

The sound of a throat clearing and children’s laughter broke through and Tony came to, realizing that Steve was not in fact anywhere near him. In fact, Tony was lying on the turf, surrounded by Clint, his kids and their caddy who looked like he was gonna shit his pants. Probably terrified at the prospect of his place of employment being sued by Tony Stark. 

 

Tony wondered, “What happened?” 

 

“Your ball hit the cart, bounced back then hit you in the head. It was freaking hilarious.” Clint explained followed by his children’s giggles. 

 

“What?” 

 

“Who’s Steve?” Cooper asked, “and what’s with your nipples?” Lila followed up. The kids giggle again, looking delighted at Tony and not realizing that their Uncle Tony was practically having a wet dream in the middle of a golf course. 

 

Tony sat up, “I can’t be falling for a local. I ain’t ever going back to that diner again.” 

 

“This where you got hit?” Clint poked the side of Tony’s head that was starting to spot a bump from the golf ball bouncing off it. 

 

“Oww!! Yes!!” 

\----

  
  


That night, in a desperate attempt to get Steve out of his mind and to stop the twitterpation, Tony called the blonde bombshell tax attorney Clint referred him to. They agreed to meet up at a bar in Waikiki for dinner and drinks. Tax attorney’s name turned out to be Noreen and she was as much of a bombshell as Clint described her to be. Noreen looked like the type of woman who knew what she wanted and was not afraid to go after it. They were having drinks after they finished their dinners. Tony ordered them both the bar specialty, a blue fishbowl, that he made sure contained no alcohol. This is Tony’s own brand of placebo. Tony might be a philandering scumbag, but he made sure any sexual activities are consensual. Noreen wouldn’t realize that there was no alcohol in these drinks, and her inhibition would fly out the window, but all her faculties would still be intact for her to have guiltless monkey sex with Tony. 

 

“You’re so lucky to get to live in Hawai’i,” Doreen said. Her voice nasally and her New York accent sounded harsh in his ears. He’s been living in Hawai’i too long, it seemed. 

 

“Yup, that’s me. Living the dream.” Tony chuckled nervously. 

 

“I’m a tax attorney, and we never get to have any fun.” she said, taking a sip of her fishbowl. She raised her gaze sultrily at Tony, “but tonight, I’d like to do something extra fun.” then she dropped her eyes back to her drink, tongued her straw and braced her body on the table in an attempt to simulate a fellatio. 

 

“Uh-oh.” Tony said aloud, eyes widening at what was happening in front of him. 

 

Noreen started sucking and gulping on the straw. Bit by bit, the liquid in the fishbowl disappeared, and it must have been half a liter that she swallowed down in one sitting. Tony couldn’t help but be amazed, “Whoa.” 

 

“Whoo!” Noreen finished her drinks, and looking very satisfied with herself, she turned back to Tony who remained astonished. 

 

“Hey Albert,” Tony called to a passing waiter, “how about another fish bowl for the lady?” 

 

“Why don’t I just tapped a keg for her?” 

 

“Okay…” 

 

Noreen laughed, “I think I’m getting kinda drunk. What about you?” she swirled her straw inside the now empty fishbowl, “Are you getting drunk, Tony?” 

 

“Am I getting drunk?” Tony asked himself. The truth is Tony’s the furthest from being drunk right now. The whole time he was having dinner with Noreen, all he could think about was having breakfast tomorrow with Steve, getting to see Steve’s face again, getting to hear his laughter again, and getting Steve to touch his hands again on the pretense of letting Steve smell the grease and motor oil that clung to him like a second skin. 

 

“Unfortunately no. I’m not drunk, Noreen and neither are you, because there’s no alcohol in these drinks. Sadly I’ve used these techniques many times. It helps lovely tourists such as yourself loosen up without impairing your ability to stay up all night to have guilt-free vigorous sex with me.” Tony confessed. 

 

Noreen stared at him for a beat before saying “Wow.” 

 

“I’m sorry.” Tony said. 

 

“Well, since it’s my last night in town can’t I just pretend you didn’t say that and still have sex with you anyway?” Noreen said, smiling sweetly to persuade Tony. 

 

“I can’t do it. I’m sorry.” Tony apologized, starting to get up from his seat to leave. 

 

“Well can you point me in the direction of someone who can?” 

 

“That guy over there might be able to help you out.” Tony pointed over to the guy/girl he spotted early on in the night. He noticed the guy/girl had been looking at Noreen pretty intently the whole night. 

 

Noreen turned around to look at him/her and balked, “Isn’t that a woman?” 

 

“I’m not really sure. But then again, you’re too drunk to notice, remember?” Tony placed a couple of bills to cover the tip and picked up the tab. “I got this. Good night. Enjoy the rest of your stay in O’ahu.”  

\----

The next day the sky was pouring buckets. Tony spared some thought in bringing a towel, just in case Steve was drenched from riding his bike in the torrential downpour that blessed O’ahu this morning. When he arrived at the Hukilau, he was one of the patrons that was there. Steve hasn’t arrived yet, which is fine. Tony was early, as he tend to be when he was excited about something. He actually had to force himself from showing up at the Hukilau three hours early because his brain convinced him that Steve would arrive early and Tony didn’t want to miss him. 

 

He sat on the counter nearest to the entrance and Sue approached him, “ _ Aloha _ .” 

 

“ _ Aloha _ ,” 

 

“Not  _ aloha _ hello,  _ aloha _ goodbye. We’re closed, go away.” she said curtly. 

 

“What are you talking about?” Tony pointed at one of the waitress carrying an order of food by him. 

 

Sue sighed and said, “I need to talk to you. Don’t move.” 

 

Wondering what that was all about Tony settled in to wait for Steve. Not long after, the man of the hour came in the diner, his leather jacket held up to his head as a shield from the rain. Steve walked by without giving Tony a second glance and sat by himself in what Tony now thought of as Steve’s booth. 

 

Thinking Steve didn’t see him sitting by the counter on his way in, Tony walked over to the booth where Steve was making himself comfortable with his battered copy of  _ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings _ . 

 

“Hi,” Tony greeted. 

 

“Hi,” Steve answered. His tone was wary, like he wasn’t sure why Tony was approaching him in the first place. 

 

“My hands are extra greasy today if you wanna take a whiff.” Tony decided starting with a joke to break the ice.

 

“What was that?” 

 

“I was rubbing my engine all morning and I was thinking about you the whole time.” 

 

Steve frowned, his brow furrowed and set his book down on the table, “Okay, pervert. I think you should leave.” he emphasized his point by folding his arms in front of him, emphasizing his biceps and Tony’s eyes widened momentarily when said biceps somehow became even larger. 

 

“What? I was just joking around because of what we talked about yesterday.” 

 

“Yesterday?” Steve countered, “I’ve never even met you.” Then stood up and called out for Nick. “Nick! Nick, we have a problem here.” 

 

“Coming, Steve!” Nick bellowed, grabbing his trusty meat cleaver and walking out of the kitchen. 

 

“Nick, put that down!” Sue commanded, “I’ll handle it. You, come with me.” she motioned to Tony to follow her outside. 

 

“Wait...what’s going on?” Tony asked, “I was kidding around with you!” he directed at Steve who was still glaring at him with distaste on his face. 

 

“What happened in there?” Tony asked once he and Sue are outside at the front porch of the diner. “Is he crazy or something?”

 

Sue sighed, “Steve is a very special person, very different from other people.” 

 

Special was understatement, Tony thought. Steve was the most wonderful person in the world, although his behavior today confusing as fuck. “Okay.” Tony said, willing Sue to continue. 

 

“About a year ago, Steve was in a terrible car accident. He and his father went up North Shore to get a pineapple. On their way back, Joe took his eyes off the road for two seconds, when a stray cow came out of nowhere and was in their path. Joe swerved to avoid hitting the cow, but ended up colliding head first to a tree. Joe broke some ribs, but Steve suffered a serious head injury. He lost his short-term memory.” 

 

“Well, so he can’t remember anything?” Tony asked, overwhelmed and confused with all the new information Sue was piling on him. 

 

“No, no, no. He has all of his long-term memory. That’s stored in a different part of the brain. His whole life, up until the night before the accident, he remembers them all. He just can’t retain any new information. It’s like his slate gets wiped clean every night while he sleeps.” Sue explained. 

 

“Wait, wait. This sounds like something I’d say to a psycho girl so she’d stop calling me. Am I the psycho girl?” Tony interjected, frustration and disbelief bubbling up in equal parts. 

 

“I wish I was making this up!” Sue insisted, “he has no memory that he ever met you.” 

 

“What about the pineapple picking thing?” 

 

“He says that everyday. Because every morning he wakes up thinking it’s October 13th of last year.” Sue elaborated, “He comes here for breakfast because that’s what he did on Saturdays and October 13th was a Saturday. He has no idea it’s more than a year later.” 

 

“He reads the newspaper though,” Tony said, grasping for anything, anything at all that would ruin Sue’s lies because he refused to believe something as preposterous as this.  

 

“It’s a special paper his father puts on their porch every night. It’s from the day of the accident. He’s got hundreds of them printed out.” That explained why Steve had no idea about Tony’s relocation to Hawai’i which happened on November last year, but how he still had knowledge of Tony’s dismantling of SI’s weapons manufacturing division because it happened three years ago. 

 

Sue took a deep breath and continued speaking, not knowing that she was delivering the final blow to Tony’s budding hope for a relationship with Steve, “Steve does the same thing everyday.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, comments and kudos are highly appreciated!
> 
> Reading your comments made me wanna post new updates as fast as possible, so keep em coming ;)
> 
> Come yell at me on Tumblr @chaoticcollectorchaos-me


	5. Just Another Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve, explained. 
> 
> Spoiler alert: Bruce Willis was a ghost.

Joe Rogers considered himself a simple man. He has no delusions of grandeur that so often deluded many people. His version of the American dream was simply to get out of poverty, be able to take care of his wife and son and retire peacefully. As the son of poor Irish immigrants, Joe experienced first hand how dehumanizing poverty was. His parents always said that American poverty was still better than Irish poverty, but this was not a life he wished on anyone, not even his worst enemy. Even as a little boy, he knew that to break this cycle of poverty that trapped many of his relatives in he needed to get an education and make something of himself.

Joe wasn’t book smart, not like that genius fella Howard Stark that started his company with $50 and a garage full of scraps. Joe knew he ain’t getting any fancy scholarship to Columbia or NYU anytime soon. And with no scholarship, there’s no way he’d be going to college anytime soon even if he took out loans. So his only way out was to serve. He joined the Marine Corps right out of high school. The recruiting sergeant told him if he finished up his contract, then upon honorable discharge he’d be entitled to collect his G.I Bill benefits, which includes the Corps footing the bill for any tuition at any university he chose to go to.

So Joe went and Joe served. Then one warm spring day on one of his leave he met Sarah Murphy, a nursing student, and the rest, as they say, was history. They got married at Sarah’s church after Sarah finished school, and a year later their only son, Steven Grant Rogers, was born on Independence Day. Joe’s American Dream was almost complete.

But Steve wasn’t born under the best circumstances. He was smaller than full term babies were supposed to be, and had to spend 3 weeks in NICU after he was born. His lungs were not fully developed, so he had to be hooked up to a ventilator for the first weeks of his life. And in America, being sick was expensive. Steve almost used up his lifetime cap just on his first month of being alive. There was no way Joe and Sarah would be able to afford to keep him in NICU for longer, so they brought him and prayed to God that their son lived through the first year of his life.

Steve lived and thrived under their care despite his health troubles. He was small compared to his peers, and his ailments made him unable to be as carefree as a toddler should be. He stayed at home more than he ventured outside, and as a result he was exceptionally close to his parents. When his contract was almost up, Joe decided to asked for an extension so he could remain in the Marines. Steve may not be at death’s door, like he was a few years ago, but the Marine took care of their own and Steve’s medicines was one of the things they would take care.

When the call came to relocate to Hawai’i, Sarah took it in stride while Steve, at the tender age of 6, was upset for having to leave Brooklyn behind. Joe assured him that Steve would still get to visit Grandda and Grandma on Summer vacations and that Hawai’i has a lot of fun places to explore during the school year. So they moved, and the Marines gave them a house in Kane’ohe, near the base. During their first years in Hawai’i, Sarah noticed that Steve’s asthma attacks became more infrequent. It seemed the clean Hawai’ian air, free of smog and pollution, was good on their son. As years went by, Steve’s health issues seemed to lessen. He was still skinny and small for his age, but Joe and Sarah were no longer worried that their son wouldn’t live to see 25.

Then one summer, Steve had a growth spurt like no other. Joe was away on tour, so all he knew was that he left behind a 5’0” 15 year old son and came back to a 16 year old son who was as tall as him at 6’2”. His boy also gained the ability to put on muscle, and has since become eligible to play football for the high school’s varsity team. So Steve’s healthy now, and Joe felt like he has one less thing to worry about. And with Steve’s apparent academic and athletic aptitudes, Joe had no doubt that Steve would be able to secure an athletic scholarship to UH, ensuring his education and future.

But just as Steve turned seventeen, it was now Sarah who was sick. A routine medical check up found a dangerously low red blood cell count and highly elevated white blood cell count. They knew what it meant, and what to prepare for. Once Sarah was diagnosed with leukemia, Joe requested leave to be with his wife and son. He was devastated, Sarah was supposed to grow old with him. They were supposed to be there for Steve’s high school graduation, college graduation, when he got married, when have kids. But, all of that wasn’t meant to be.

Sarah passed away the week before Steve graduated high school. They buried her in a cemetery overlooking the blue Hawai’ian ocean because they wanted her to have something beautiful to look at. Sarah was gone, and she took all the light and joy with her. Joe was ashamed to admit it, but he wasn’t the best father to Steve in the months leading up to Sarah’s death and after she was gone. He was absent minded on the best of days. He stopped going to church because he was angry at the God who dared took his wife away from him, and he went deep inside the bottle for days on end.

Steve cleaned him up, carried him to bed when he had too much to drink. The kid practically run the whole household in Sarah’s stead. Instead of staying at the UH dorms like the other student athletes, he chose to live off-campus with Joe and make the early morning commutes to Manoa for football practice and classes. Joe, deep in the bottles and on extended leave from the Marines, didn’t notice until on one of his sober days, he went to the kitchen to find Steve cooking breakfast.

“What are you making?” Joe asked, making his presence known to his son.

“Corned beef hash. I made extra so you can have them for lunch later, if you want. Just need to nuke it in the microwave.” he said, motioning to the pile of beef and potato on the dining table.

Just then the sun hit Steve in a way that made his blonde hair (the hair he got from Sarah) shone. His son wore the Saint Michael the Archangel pendant Sarah gave him at his confirmation. In this light, he looked so much like Sarah that Joe’s heart clenched in its cage and throbbed painfully.

He must have zoned out for awhile because when he came back Steve was in front of him, shouldering his backpack and training bag. “I’ll be back late tonight, Dad. I’ve asked Mrs. Hasegawa to check on you. Call me if you need anything, okay?”

And Joe could do naught but nodded. Looking at Steve, he remembered the message his late father imparted to him when they found out that Sarah was pregnant. His father had said that his “children didn’t ask to be born into this world, they exist because you will them to and because of that you made a pact with this new life you’re creating to take care of them always, until you can’t anymore and it’s their turn to take care of you, if the choose to do so.”

But right now Steve was taking care of Joe, and that ain’t the way it’s supposed to be. Joe realized that the time for grieving is over. He would always miss Sarah, and she might be gone, but a piece of her lived on in Steve. Joe still had Steve. And he always would until the day he died.

So Joe was honorably discharged from the Marines and took a job in an auto shop catering to tourists up the road. It was easy work, it paid well and it allowed him to spend time with his son. From that day on, they became closer as father and son. Steve persuaded Joe to continue the pineapple-picking tradition he and Sarah had for his birthdays and for Thanksgiving. Joe got to see his boy graduate and get his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and History, and moving on to pursue a Master’s so he could be a teacher. Steve then got his certifications to teach and a job at a middle school. Joe always knew that boy had more brains than brawns.

Through it all, father and son stuck close together. Steve didn’t see a reason to move out of his family home, preferring to stay close to his Dad. And with the addition of James (Joe wasn’t gonna call that kid anything but the name his mama gave him, alright) fresh out of the service, still shell-shocked and missing a limb, Joe’s house was full. While they’re not the perfect nuclear family people saw on TV, it’s pretty damn perfect in Joe’s world.

Of course that was before Joe cracked open Steve’s head at a pineapple plantation.

The months following that accident was somehow harder than the months following Sarah’s death. It was like reliving Sarah’s slow descent to lifelessness, but this time it was more painful because this was happening to Joe’s own flesh and blood. The sight of Steve lying on the hospital bed, all black and blue from the bruises on his face and head, and all Joe wanted to do was switch places with his boy. Let him be the one with the brain damage, while Steve only had to have cracked ribs.

Steve was in the hospital for three months. The whole time he was there, Joe and James had to watch the light drained away from Steve’s eyes when he realized that he would never have a normal life, as they tell them again and again what had happened to him. When they took him home, Joe came up with a crazy idea to let Steve believe that it was still Saturday three months ago. He enlisted James’ help to keep up the ruse, sequestering Steve away from his friends, his life before the accident, his students and anyone that wasn’t in Steve’s life on October 13th.

Joe realized this was not best idea. But what was he supposed to do? Should he tell Steve that he has temporal lobe damage that wiped out his abilities to retain new memories and that he would never be a normal person and watch the pain and devastation in his son’s eyes, every single day? Or should he go on letting Steve think everything’s normal, just another Saturday to go out to the Hukilau for breakfast, and not burdening Steve with the knowledge of his condition?

Joe chose the more of the two evils because he’s weak and a coward.

Sarah would have a better solution, he was sure of that. Sarah would have buckled down, Joe’s not strong enough to see the pain and sadness in his son’s eyes every single day. He’d rather pull a Groundhog Day, keeping Steve well and happy, doing the same thing day after day, unchanging.

After all for Steve it’s just another day.

  
\----

Steve came back from breakfast feeling out of sorts. His breakfast was interrupted by some pervert who came up to him talking about rubbing his “engine” and his greasy hands. A diner ain’t no disco. Nobody wanted to get hit on while eating their breakfast. Sure, the guy was handsome and cute, with his soft disheveled brown hair and earnest brown eyes. Steve was not opposed to being hit on every once in awhile. He knew he was attractive, and people liked to look at the muscles. And if the person approaching him was as cute as the guy from the diner, he might be open to talk to him. But really, at a diner when Steve just wanted to to eat his breakfast and re-read a Maya Angelou classic was not the right place. Thankfully the rain stopped midway through the day, and Steve had high hopes for pineapple-picking with his Dad.

Steve parked his bike between Dad’s pickup truck and Bucky’s beat up Subaru and walked inside the house.

“Hello? Dad?” he called out. “In the kitchen!” his father shouted back. Steve walked towards the kitchen and stopped short as he saw his father holding a pineapple in his hands.

“You got one. Without me,” Steve remarked disappointingly. His father looked down at the pineapple in his hand.

“Oh, the lady down at the farmers’ market gave it to me. I didn’t wanna hurt her feelings.” he explained. Steve pursed his lips, disappointed their yearly pineapple-picking excursion was cancelled. But a small smile graced his lips at hearing the reason behind the pineapple’s appearance in the first place.

“Well I think she likes you. You should ask her out sometimes,” Steve said. He reached over picking a couple plump green grapes Joe bought at the market.

“Yeah right. What’s not to like?” Joe replied patting his bulging stomach.

“There’s a lot to like, Dad.” Steve smiled softly, reaching for the pineapple and setting it on the table. It’s firm enough that it wouldn’t turn to mush when he baked it for the Upside Down pineapple cake he always made for Dad’s birthday, “since we’re not going to pick a pineapple for your birthday, promise me we’re going for Thanksgiving.”

“I promise, Stevie. But I have another idea. I just painted my workshop this morning. White.”

Steve quirked his brow, knowing his father was hinting at something else. They walked to the workshop together and the combination of the white walls and the fluorescent white lights Joe installed in the workshop made for one amazing headache.

“Now it’s too white. It makes my head hurts.” Joe declared, voicing Steve’s concerns.

“Oh yeah, you definitely need some color in here.” Steve agreed. His father walked over to a covered mound in the middle of the workshop and pulled back the tarp covering it to reveal cans of paints and various types of brushes. “That’s what I thought. Here, go nuts. Paint me something nice for my birthday.”

Steve beamed, excited for a chance to create something special for his father. It’s been awhile since he worked on a mural. His go-to medium was paper and charcoal, and if he’s feeling melancholy some water color would be used. He reserved his oil paintings for paid commissions, and he hasn’t been getting those in awhile. “I won’t let you down. Hey, you should watch the Giants game while I’m painting,” Steve turned around surveying the white walls, already brainstorming possible scenes to paint.

“Right…”

Joe walked back to the house, entering through the kitchen to find James doing reps on the kitchen counter. “What’s for dinner tonight, James?”

“Spaghetti, Uncle Joe.” his face seemed to have more color today and he wasn’t being curt. Joe thought it must be good day then.

“Steve’s painting. Time to watch to the game,” he said motioning to the the tv and pulling up the DVR’d Giants game from last year. Joe’s resigned face said it all.

“Go Giants,” James muttered, not pausing in his reps.

A couple of hours later, Joe was lounging on the couch trying to throw cards at an upturned cap he placed a couple feet away from him. James was doing situps on the love seat next to him and counting the number of reps he’s done, when the back door slammed open, and the two men rushed to their default position of “watching” the football game. Joe turned the TV on and James pretended to read a magazine. Steve came into the house, his face and clothes splattered with paint. He was drinking water he retrieved from the refrigerator.

“Hey, Stevie. How’s the painting coming?”

“Ooh you’ll see. Oh, what’s the score?” Steve sat down on the couch next Joe.

“Uhh, the Giants are on the two-yard line. If they score here they bring it to 14-10.”

“Ooh, maybe they’ll win for your birthday, Dad.” Joe hummed resignedly, “And I’ll bet Manning runs it in.” Steve turned to Bucky.

“I bet he fakes a pass at Odell and throws a pass at Gallmann at the End Zone. Loser does the dishes?” Bucky challenged, ignoring the look Joe directed at him.

Never one to turn down a challenge, Steve agreed “You’re on.” They shook on it and turned their attention back to the game where the announcer then said exactly what Bucky had predicted would happen. Gallmann did run the ball in to the End Zone and scored another touchdown for the Giants.

“Aww, Buck, you’re good.” Steve commiserate, “ It’s almost as if you’re the football player and not me. You should be a coach,” Steve stood up and left the room to clean up the paints before dinner.

Once his son was out of sight, Joe took of his shoe and threw it at Bucky, “Moron.”

“Ow, Uncle Joe! That hurt!”

\----

 

“Happy birthday, dear Dad! Happy birthday to you!” Steve, Bucky and Joe were all gathered in the small dining table at the kitchen wearing party hats that looked comical on three grown men. A pineapple upside down cake that was made and decorated with candles by Steve was on the table in front of Joe. As the song came to an end, Joe took it as his cue to blow out the candles. Steve clapped as he successfully blow out all the candles in one breath and hugged him.

“And you don’t look a day over twenty five!” he exclaimed.   
“Yeah, right. And James’ left arm is flesh and blood.”

“Oi! don’t knock on the prosthetics! This thing is a piece of art, okay. It has pneumatic sensors, amazing neural connection that lets me feel the things I touch and makes me look jacked as hell. Check this out.” Bucky flexed his metal arm, willing Steve to feel the smoothness of the metal.

“I like it, Buck. It is a work of art. That Tony Stark is a genius.” Steve said, moving to the kitchen to retrieve Joe’s present.

“That guy did sum’n right gettin’ outta the weapons business.” Joe added, “Ain’t no glory to get by helping people kill each other better.”

“I agree, Dad. Here, open your present.”

Joe schooled his face to look surprised, “A present! What is this?” He ripped open the wrapping paper, knowing what was inside but still maintaining the surprised look on his face, “Oh The Sixth Sense!” he exclaimed to Bucky. Bucky pretended to look surprised and approving of Steve’s gift choice.

Steve beamed, “Hey, when I’m done doing the dishes do you guys wanna watch it?”

“Sure…”

Later, Joe was dozing on the couch while Steve watched attentively at the movie that he unknowingly had at least 100 times in the past year alone. Bucky picked at his pineapple cake on the couch next to Steve, with no intention to eat another piece of it. On screen, Donnie Wahlberg and Bruce Willis argued about their mortality, and when Donnie’s character shot off a gun Steve jolted on the couch, not expecting the scene to end the way it was. Joe smiled softly at his son. Some days, it was easy to fool themselves that they’re normal, that Steve was living a normal life. But then little things, like not knowing that Bruce Willis was a ghost the whole time or the way a football game would end, would remind them that they’re playing a ruse on Steve.

“I can’t believe it.” Steve exclaimed, walking to the stairs, “Bruce Willis was a ghost. This whole time, he was the ghost. I didn’t see it coming. Did you…?”

“Nope, not a clue,” Bucky mumbled.

“Totally slipped by me, Stevie.”

“Well, I had a great time celebrating your birthday, Dad.” Steve hugged Joe, “happy birthday again, Dad. “Good night, Buck. See you guys in the morning.” He said as he climbed the stairs up to where his room was located.

“Night. Love you, Stevie.” Bucky said. Once Steve disappeared up the stairs, Bucky and Joe turned to each other and sighed. The real work has just began.

Together, they tag teamed the necessary preparations for the day. First, Bucky got rid of the leftover pineapple upside cake that Steve made. Then, Bucky took the gray shirt and jeans Steve had been wearing today and put it in the washing machine. Then he went outside to the locked freezer and retrieved a pineapple for tomorrow’s birthday cake again. Once those were done, he went upstairs to Steve’s bathroom and refilled the shampoo and body wash to the level it had been this morning.

Meanwhile, Joe rewrapped The Sixth Sense DVD and placed in the place where Steve would have hidden it as a birthday present. Then he went to the shed and retrieved the newest copy of the Honolulu Star, dated October 13th of last year and placed it on the front porch for Steve to retrieve the next morning. Then, he and Bucky would head to the workshop and took a picture of the mural depicting Brooklyn that Steve had painted earlier in the day and together they repainted the walls white for Steve to paint it again tomorrow.

They’ve hit the reset button. And now everything’s ready to start again.

\----

“And this is what happens, every single day.” Tony concluded. He was sitting in his lanai, on of the poolside chairs with Clint and his gardener/poolboy (man) Peter Quill. After leaving the diner, he was feeling pretty melancholic about today’s events. He went home and proceeded to take out his moping clothes which consisted of a bathrobe, old band shirt and sweatpants, wore them and made himself comfortable in the lanai with a glass of green smoothie. Clint came by earlier with the kids like he always did, and Peter came later in the evening just before dinner time. He doesn’t work in the evenings, but Tony thought he probably had another fight with his wife Gamora and got kicked out of the house for the night.

Right now it’s late enough that the kids have been put to sleep and Tony finally told them his current situation with Steve.

“How long it’s gonna take for his memories to come back?” Clint asked.

“His doctors say it might never come back.”

“So what you’re saying is, he’s the perfect guy for you, right?” Peter said. He was seated across from Tony, a half full bottle of beer in front of him.

“What do you mean?”

“You can hang out with him all day with no attachment, because--”

“-- his plane leaves every night?” Tony interjected, looking at Quill, “there’s only one problem with that.”

“Which is?”

“It’s evil.”

“No, it isn’t. You meet him, hang out, flirt, no commitment, nobody gets hurt.”

Tony looked up disbelievingly at Quill, “He’s got brain damage, you psycho!”

“Okay I’ll give you that one.” Quill conceded.

“But I think it’ll be healthy for you, Tones,” Clint interjected, “you haven’t allowed yourself to connect with another human being in a long time.”

“I appreciate your interest, Oprah, but leave me alone.” he stood up and went to the dry bar to pour himself a glass of scotch.

“Hey you’d be doing exactly what his father does--giving him a wonderful day.”

“Yeah man,” Quill added, “then when it’s time for you to move on, poof. You just leave. He’d never even know you’re gone.”

“See, I’m not exactly sure about the poofing part. Because I’m not a good poofer. Would you two care to demonstrate that for me?”

“Quit busting our coconuts for five seconds, huh. We’re just trying to help,” Quill said, taking out what looked like a joint from his pocket.

“Alright. Would you stop poofing on that joint, please? I’d rather not deal with smell.”

“Whatever you say, boss.” Quill put his joint back in his pocket. Tony rolled his eyes at the man when Clint asked him “What are you gonna do then?”

“That’s the six million dollar question right there.” Tony said, taking a sip from his tumbler. What, indeed, would he do? Stop going to the diner so he doesn’t have to see Steve? Pros: heartbreak and rejection avoided. Cons: not seeing Steve. Not seeing his smile, or hear his laughter or see him furrow his brow in that really cute way of his when Tony told him an inappropriate joke. Or would he go to the diner, do what Clint and Quill suggested, ensnare Steve under false pretenses, have fun with him for a day then leave him at the end, no commitments, no strings attached. Pros: Seeing Steve again, even without Steve remembering that one amazing morning they shared. Cons: unethically taking advantage of a trauma patient.

“I wish Gamora has short term memory loss. That way she won’t remember that I called her father a narcissistic, loud mouthed drunk with a face that looked like J. Edgar Hoover’s ballsack.” Quill quipped from his position on the lanai.

Tony rolled his eyes so hard he’s surprised his orbital muscles weren’t sprained. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who commented, left kudos and subscribed! Love you all <3


	6. Melt With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The course of true love never did run smooth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is where the hijinks and shenanigans tag start to come into play :D

Tony went to the Hukilau cafe the next day. He decided that if he could only have Steve in the short couple of hours when he had his breakfast, then that’s what he’s going to get. So now his mission was to get Steve to have breakfast with him again. He spied Steve already sitting in his booth, nose buried in his battered copy of  _ Caged Bird _ . Tony wondered how many times Steve has read the same passages and the same chapter without realizing it. He walked up to the back entrance leading to the kitchens of the diner to spot Nick puttering around in the kitchen. 

 

“Howzit?” Tony greeted, knocking the screen door and pushing it open. Nick turned around and upon seeing Tony, he looked surprised, “Peanut Butter Cups! What are you doing here?”

 

“I, uh, just wanna say hi to Steve.” Nick shook his head in disapproval and walked further in the kitchen. 

 

“I promise you, I’m not gonna do anything wrong.”  

 

“What did Sue say?” Nick brandished a meat cleaver at Tony’s person. The threat of mutilation by a giant Hawai’ian man made him take a step back. 

 

“She said that if I talk to Steve, you’ll kill me with a meat cleaver.” 

 

“She’s the boss, cuz,” Nick put the cleaver down, “ But don’t worry. Steve probably don’t wanna talk to you anyway.” 

 

“Um, what does that mean?” Tony was starting to get offended at these people doubting his intentions with Steve. 

 

“This ain’t a disco. He doesn’t want guys hitting on him while he has his breakfast.” Nick explained. 

 

“Psh. He does if it’s Tony Stark.” 

 

“Who dat?” Nick looked confused, not knowing why another random person was suddenly involved in his conversation with Peanut Butter Cups. 

 

“Who dat? Me dat. Don’t you have internet?!” Tony gestured to where Steve was sitting, “I bet you 20 bucks I can get him to have breakfast with me again.” 

 

Nick seemed to ponder Tony’s proposition, looking at where Steve was working on yet another prototype of a house for the Wafflings. “You’re on.” 

 

“I love it.” They clasped hands and Tony went to work for his twenty bucks. 

In the front of the house, Sue was serving customers. As she topped up one of her customer’s coffees she walked by Steve’s booth, “How you doing, honey?” 

 

“Hey, Sue.” Steve greeted, “nice haircut.” 

 

“Oh,  _ mahalo _ .” Sue poured more coffee in Steve’s cups and turned to leave, “See you in a bit.”

 

Only to turn around and to come face to face with a stubborn genius billionaire approaching her, “Nick and I have an arrangement. You can trust me.” She smacked a menu to Tony’s chest, “Don’t worry,” the man reassured her. 

 

Sue saw Nick peeking in from his spot in the kitchen and sent him a glare. Nick quickly hid away at the sight of his pissed off boss. That’s right, Sue thought, you better be scared. 

 

Tony sat down on the counter across the aisle from Steve’s booth. As he pretended to study the menu, he saw that Steve was at the door installation part of his project. Perfect, Tony thought. 

 

He cleared his throat, willing Nick to look his way and picked up a toothpick and tilted his head at Steve behind him. Nick looked at him from his position by the dishwasher and urged Tony to make his move. 

 

“You should try this out.” Tony started, he did the same thing he did the second day they met to create a hinge for the door to swing back and forth, “Put it in there,” he said as he inserted the toothpick through the waffle roof, “Swivelly door. Now the wafflings can go in and out of the house freely.” Tony grinned. This move was what got him an invite for breakfast in the first place. He was sure in about two minutes he’d be having breakfast with Steve again. 

 

“Oh, are you from a country where it’s okay to stick your hands all over other people’s foods?” Steve asked sarcastically, folding his hands in front of him. 

 

“No, I’m from this country,” uh oh.  _ Abort _ .  _ Abort _ . You colossal idiot. “Why? Were you gonna eat that?” 

 

Steve smiled condescendingly at him. And Tony was so embarrassed he wanted the floor to open up and swallowed him whole. 

 

“Oh. Alright then. Have a good meal.” He turned around to leave and lick his wounds in private. 

As he was leaving he saw Nick giving a two thumbs up which he then rotate to become two thumbs down along with blowing a raspberry at him. 

 

“Yeah…” Tony acknowledged quietly. 

 

“That was pathetic.” Sassy grandpa once again made his thoughts known without solicitations. 

“Yeah? Well why don’t you choke on your spam?” Tony shot back. 

 

“Double or nothing tomorrow!” 

\----

 

The next day Tony sat on the same position in the counter. He was drawing on a piece of paper towel a piece of art that surely would land him breakfast with Steve. As he finished he got up and approached Steve again. 

 

“Pardon me, but you seem like the type of person who would appreciate fine art. So, I wanted your opinion on something. I draw this picture, see. It’s, uh, about a dad that served in the military and he worked on engines--” 

 

“ _ Ár n-Athair atá ar neamh _ .  _ Go naofar d'ainim, go dtagfadh do ríocht _ .” Steve said. 

 

“Huh?” Tony stopped and started, trying to comprehend what the fuck just came out of Steve’s mouth. 

 

“ _ Go ndéantar do thoil ar an talamh mar a dhéantar ar neamh _ ,” Steve gestured with his arms and nodded his head. 

 

“Oh, you don’t speak English.” 

 

“ _ Ár n-Athair, ár n-Athair _ .” 

 

“Okay.” Tony slunk back to his seat on the counter. “That don’t sound Chinese.” And Tony should know, his Mandarin was superb, thanks to weekly trips to Chinatown. Nothing sharpened one’s language skills better than haggling with an old Chinese woman over fruits. He could see Sue laughing from the corner of his eye. From the kitchen, Nick was signalling “40!” and doing a happy dance. Well, at least this was amusing to someone. 

 

“Can I have that? I need something to wipe my ass with.” Sassy grandpa striked again. 

 

“Ha ha ha. Shut up.” 

\----

Okay, today was it. This would be Tony’s last stand. Today he’s gonna do something dramatic, something Steve wouldn’t be able to turn his attention away or easily shrugged off. From his usual perch on the counter, he decided, as he stared at the menu. This was the day. It’s now or never. 

 

So Tony did what he should have done days before: he started sobbing. 

 

Tony sobbed loudly, drawing the attention of the patrons of the restaurants to him. He started to imitate crying sounds. To sell the whole act, Tony reached for his water and dabbed some water under his eyes. The louder he cried, the more people paid attention to him. Sue and Nick both looked around trying to see what the fuss was about when they saw Tony on the counter sobbing over a menu. 

 

“I wonder what’s the matter with him.” Steve asked worryingly at the other patron sitting on the booth adjacent to his own. The man on the counter was despairingly holding the menu while crying and moaning, despondently smacking his hand on the counter. 

 

“Looks like a stupid asshole to me.” remarked Sassy grandpa. 

 

Steve stood up, trying to approach the sobbing man on the counter, “Excuse me,” but the man kept crying. His back was angled away from Steve as he bawled his eyes out on the menu he’s clutching. The man was surprisingly handsome with soft, fluffy looking brown hair and an outrageous looking Van Dyke that would have looked ridiculous on anyone but him. His eyes were huge and a warm brown color that reminded Steve of Bambi. This man’s probably the most beautiful man Steve’s ever seen in awhile, and something in Steve urged him to go to the man. 

 

Steve placed his hand on the man’s shoulder and he jolted, eyes looking around frantically until it landed on Steve’s face. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” Steve soothed, holding his hands up in a non-threatening manner, “I didn’t mean to startle you. Are you okay?”

 

The man nodded and sniffled a little, “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m having a little problem, but…” 

 

“Is it something I can help you with?” Steve asked, sitting down on the counter next to the man. 

 

“No, no, no. I just-- can’t  _ read… _ ” he sniffed. 

 

“You gotta be kidding me,” Steve heard Nick said. 

 

“Here, I can read it for you…” Steve reached for the menu. 

 

“No, no, it’s okay. Appreciate the sentiment, but I can do this on my own.” the man shook his head and insistently holding the menu, “I’m gonna get the order of the uh, have the pan--, the pancoo...kie--, no that’s not it.”

 

Steve pursed his lips in amusement, recognizing the ruse even as he tried to mouth the correct way to read the item “Pan...ca…”

 

“Panclocks?” the man said. 

 

“Pancakes.” he heard Sue finished from where she was standing next to a customer reading the menu.

 

“Okay, I’ll have pancake,” the customer said. 

 

“Pancakes! Pancakes! Stupid!” he cried again. 

 

“Oh, don’t cry,” Steve soothed. 

 

“Stupid! Stupid! I don’t know anything!” The man hid his face on the countertop, crying again. 

 

“What a loser.” he heard Nick remarked. 

 

This time he started crying and moaning, voice reaching a fevered pitch that drew the attention of more patrons and alarmed Steve.

 

“Tell you what? Why don’t you come over there with me? You can have some breakfast and I’ll help teach you some of the words.” 

 

“Okay.” 

 

“All right.” 

 

“That sounds nice.” 

 

“Come on over.” 

 

“Okay, thank you.”

 

Just before he followed Steve to the booth, Tony spared a moment to grin and look triumphantly back at Nick who flipped him the bird.   

\----

“So _ I  _ comes before the  _ E _ , except after  _ C _ ?” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“Okay. and  _ C _ is that little half a squiggly one, right?” 

 

“Yes!” 

 

“I think I’m getting it.” Tony smiled. He couldn’t believe his luck. Finally after three days of making a fool of himself and losing $60 to Nick, he’s sitting across Steve again, chatting and  eating breakfast together. “How did you get so good at teaching?” 

 

“I’m a teacher. I do it all the time. I’m an art teacher at the Haluki-liki Junior high.” 

“Well, you’re Haluki-like the kind of teacher all the kids have crushes on. I know I would if I was in your class.”

Steve startled at the obvious come-on in the man’s words and tone. It’s been awhile since someone flirted with him. 

 

“Okay.” Steve chuckled. 

 

“Oh, boy, my fingers like grease and oil. That doesn’t gross you out, does it?” the man said. 

 

Steve tilted his head at the non-sequitur, “No, not at all.” the smell of oil and grease reminded him of his father and how much Steve would miss him when he was still on active duty. It brought a smile to his face as he felt a profound sense of deja vu, as if he’d had confided his fondness to the scent to someone else before. 

  
  


Back in the kitchen, Sue smacked Nick upside the head as she saw how cozy Steve and Tony sat in the booth and chatting up a storm.

 

“If Steve gets hurt, I’m gonna chop you with the meat cleaver.”

 

“Ow! Okay!” 

\----

 

“So I had a nice time,” Tony said after breakfast. They were outside walking towards Tony’s convertible. 

 

“Yeah, me too. Here, let me get that for you.” Steve reached for the door and opened it for Tony.  

 

“Oh, thank you very much.” Once Tony settled in the driver’s seat, he turned back and gazed up at Steve who was looking down on him with an expectant look on his face. 

 

Tony thought Steve was waiting for Tony to ask him out. Steve had no memory of them ever meeting before, and after today he would forget about meeting Tony again. And Tony, well, he was prepared to do this every day: to get Steve to fall for him, or at least feel a semblance of affection towards him before forgetting about him and the feelings he might have elicited. This was the middle ground: he could see Steve everyday, and he wouldn’t be leading Steve on like Clint and Quill suggested. Though it would be painful seeing the man he was (almost definitely) in love with not recognize him or acknowledge his feeling, it’s the lesser of two evils. 

 

He’d live with this heartache for the rest of his life if he could see Steve’s smile everyday like this. 

“I’ll see you around.” Tony said as he fiddled with the ignition button on his Audi, preparing to turn the ignition on. 

 

Then Steve’s smile turned into a frown as he realized Tony was dismissing him, “Okay.” he walked away from Tony’s car and started walking towards where he parked his bike before he stopped and resolutely turned around again. “That’s it? All that flirting and phony “I can’t read” stuff and you’re not even gonna ask me out or for my phone number?” 

 

And Tony thought his heart must have dropped to the bottom of his stomach. “What? I can’t read.” 

 

“Oh shut up.” Steve turned around again. Tony got out of his car and approached him but Steve’s longer stride made it hard for Tony to keep up. He was already pulling on his leather jacket and straddling his bike when Tony got to his side. 

 

“That was one of the goofiest things I’ve ever seen in my life, but I thought “Hey, if this guy is so desperate to meet me, he might be worth talking to”. But then I get stiffed.” he said, putting on a pair of aviators that would have made Tony swooned if he wasn’t so worried about pissing him off. 

 

“No, no, no. This is what happened…” Tony tried to explain, but Steve held his hand up. 

 

“ _ Mahalo _ for the ego boost.” then he pulled out of his parking spot, Tony trying to placate him all the while. 

 

“You’re right. You’re right. I feel like uh...” 

 

Steve was already driving away. His right hand made the “hang loose” sign at Tony’s direction. “No worries.” 

 

“I can read a little! I didn’t know I came before E! I didn’t know that, I swear!” Tony shouted at him. 

 

“Oh you idiot.” Tony jumped in the car and drove after Steve, he needed to apologize regardless of the fact that Steve wouldn’t remember any of this happening come tomorrow. 

 

Under the porch of the Hukilau, watching everything unfold was Sue and Nick. Seeing Steve and Tony driving out of the parking lot hurriedly, Sue remarked “I hope you’re happy, Shamu.” she told a grumbling Nick who rolled his eyes at her. 

 

She then pulled out her cell phone and dialed. “Joe, it’s Sue.”

\----

Tony knew Steve’s address. After the first time they had breakfast together, and in the throes of infatuation, Tony might have went a little overboard in trying to get to know Steve. He had asked JARVIS to compile what amounted to a dossier on his object of affections. He knew every biographical detail about Steve from his birthday, blood type, credit score, social security number, how much student loan debt he had left (which Tony will be paying off sometime in the future) and the fact that he was an organ donor. It’s perfectly normal to want to know every relevant detail about that special someone, anyway and getting his address was child’s play. 

 

When he pulled up in front of a modest two story house in the residential area of Kane’ohe, the front yard had two cars parked in it with Steve’s motorcycle closest to the front porch. Tony parked his convertible behind Steve’s bike then walked to the front door. He knocked on the door, hoping that Steve would be the one who answered it. The door opened revealing a middle aged man in a short sleeved collared shirt and shorts. He must be Steve’s father, Joe. 

 

“Oh, Aloha, sir. My name’s Tony--” 

 

“I know who you are.” the man’s voice was rough and gravelly. Tony could hear the Brooklyn accent in his voice and his tone didn’t promise anything reassuring to Tony. Joe stepped outside and grabbed Tony’s elbow and walked him back outside towards the edge of the water on the property. 

 

“I want to apologize to your son,” Tony said. 

 

“Not gonna happen. He’s inside.” Joe shot him down, releasing his hold on Tony’s elbow. “You and me are gonna straighten things out.” 

 

“Uncle Joe, the damn mongoose got in the garbage again!” a deep voice called from the side of the house. A young man with shoulder length brown hair pulled up in a messy bun, wearing a sleeveless shirt and what looked to be one of Tony’s prosthetic limb, straightened up from his position when he saw Joe with Tony. From Steve’s stories, this must be the best friend-- Blucky? Or Pucky?-- that is part of Stark Resilient’s prosthetics clinical trials. 

 

“This the guy?” he gestured at Tony, an angry look on his face as he strode towards the two men. 

 

“Mr. Stark, I have one simple request,” Joe started, “Stay away from my son.” 

 

“Absolutely. It’s just that I think I hurt his feelings, and I don’t want it to end like that.” 

 

“It’s gonna end like this,” then Blucky or Pucky charged at Tony. But Tony easily sidestepped him and flipped over to the ground. 

 

“Calm down, little fella. I don’t wanna hurt you.” 

 

“I’m gonna kill you! You’re a dead man!” Blucky/Pucky shouted, but then immediately said “Okay, I’m calm. I’m calm.” 

 

Joe rolled his eyes at their antics. Tony then loosened his grip of James and helped the younger man up to his feet. 

 

“It’s just that Uncle Joe and I worked hard to protect Steve to let some idiot with the hots for him to come and ruin it all.” Bucky --yeah, Tony’s pretty sure now, his name is Bucky-- told Tony. 

 

“I know all about what you guys do and I totally respect that.” 

 

“Look, if you know about his condition then you know he can’t have a normal relationship with anyone, because the next morning he won’t know who they are. And anyone who’s okay with that, ain’t okay with me.” Joe stared him down. 

 

“I’m not looking for a one-night stand.” Tony tried again. 

 

“Anything with Steve is a one-night stand, numb-nuts.” Bucky called out. 

 

“Give us a break. Stay away from the Hukilau cafe.” Joe cautioned, “my son’s been through enough.” 

 

Joe’s eyes shone with unspoken pain, willing the stranger in front of him to heed his requests. 

 

“Okay. I’m sorry.” Tony acknowledged softly, then turned to leave. 

 

\----

 

“So smart and so efficient,” Tony told DUM-E as he rewired the slivers of wire that he pulled out earlier from DUM-E’s pinchers to work on. DUM-E chirped happily knowing that after today, he’ll be able to make Tony’s green smoothies taste better. Tony had spent the remainder of the day trying to forget about the fiasco that was his breakfast with Steve. Chasing Steve down to his house and meeting his father and BFF just made Tony felt bad about the whole thing. Steve’s dad was right, Steve has been through a lot. And Tony adding his pining and longing for him, albeit without Steve’s direct knowledge, was just adding stress on the family who was doing their damnedest to keep Steve safe. 

 

So he tried to distract himself from thinking about Steve by doing some work for SI. But five hours in, he got bored and decided to upgrade DUM-E’s code instead. Maybe this time he could finally get DUM-E to stop making him motor oil supplemented green smoothie, or better yet made Tony a sandwich that didn’t include gel lubricant along with the peanut butter. Natasha came down to the workshop a couple hours ago to get his signatures on some paperwork he didn’t bother to read. She’s been here ever since then, typing away on a laptop looking ostensibly like she’s working but Tony knew behind that laptop she was probably playing Galaga. 

 

“Hey Nat, did you ever ended up hooking up with that girl from legal Pepper sent to notarize the sales paperwork on the upstate storage facility?” 

“No, I decided not to.” Nat said, not looking up from her laptop. 

 

“Really. I thought she would have been your type what with the blushing and stammering she made anytime you’re in the vicinity. It’s really flattering,” 

 

Natasha shrugged, “Guess I still prefer sausages to tacos, after all.” 

 

Tony snorted in a laugh as DUM-E chirped and swirled his pinchers around. “All right, buddy. You’re all set. Now go make Daddy some smoothie.” Tony sent DUM-E off to the general vicinity of the blender. 

 

“Let me ask you something, Nat. If you promise someone’s dad that you’re not gonna see them anymore, would you consider that a binding promise?” 

 

Natasha looked up from her laptop, finally interested in the conversation, “Absolutely. I’m a woman of my words.” 

 

Tony nodded. Of course, no one’s gonna be sleazy enough as to actually double crossed an oath made to someone’s parent regarding the well-being of their children. 

 

“And as a woman of my words,” Natasha continued, “I will honor every single word that was mentioned in the promise. Nothing less and nothing more.” her lips quirked up slyly. 

 

And just like that, Tony had genius-level a-ha moment. 

\----

“He asked me not to go to the Hukilau, and I’m not going to the Hukilau. I’m not doing anything wrong.” Tony said to himself. 

 

He has parked himself on the side of the road he knew Steve would pass by on his way home from breakfast. The front engine cover was lifted up to mimic a troubled car. He was going to pretend that his car broke down and asked Steve for a jump on the battery. As he stood there waiting, he could hear the thundering sound of Steve’s Harley and soon after the man himself showed up, looking handsome and utterly devastating in the morning Hawaiian sun. 

 

Tony flagged him down, channeling what he hoped is a desperate and pathetic expression on his face to convince Steve he was a stranded motorist. And since Steve was the best person ever, he stopped. “Sorry to bother you. I’m kinda stuck out here.” 

 

“Uh-oh. Car troubles?” he asked. 

 

“Yeah. You mind giving me a jump?”

 

Tony got the cables out of his trunk and hooked the electrodes to the battery of Steve’s bike, “I really appreciate this, you know. Not everyone would have stopped. You’re real nice,” 

 

“Yeah, no worries.” 

 

Then Tony hooked the clamps to his battery’s electrode and started to scream, “AAAHHH!!!”

 

“AAAHHH!!” Steve mirrored him, startled at Tony’s scream. 

 

They kept screaming at each other for a couple of seconds before Tony’s screams gave way to laughter. 

 

“I can’t believe you fell for that!” Tony laughed some more, pleased at pulling one over at Steve. 

 

Steve’s eyes were soft and his expression went from scared to saddened. He was silent for a beat before he said, “My grandfather died trying to jump start a car,” 

 

Oh fuck. Way to fucking go, Tony. Now Steve would probably spend the rest of his day reliving a bad memory. 

 

“Oh no...I’m sorry. I just...I was just joking around--” Tony tried to salvage the situation and comfort Steve. 

 

“I can’t believe...you fell for that!” Steve laughed at Tony’s downtrodden expression. He let out a cute giggle as he laughed at Tony. 

 

“Oh my God. That was very good.” Tony said, smiling as he realized Steve played him back. Steve’s just as much of a little shit as Tony was. They were perfect for each other. 

 

“I’m Tony, by the way.” 

 

“I’m Steve. Nice to meet you,”

\----

 

The next day was raining. Tony waited at the same side of the road, but this time he came prepared with roadblocks, hazard lights, a stop sign and a construction worker’s uniform and helmet to simulate road construction. Steve came as expected, clad in a plastic raincoat and helmet that covered his whole face. At the sight of the road construction ahead, he stopped before the supervising worker. 

 

“Hey there. Sorry for the delay. It’s just gonna take a couple minutes,” the worker greeted. 

 

“No problem. No worries.” Steve said amicably. 

“Where are you coming from? Breakfast?” 

 

“Yeah,” Steve nodded. 

 

“How was it?” 

 

“I had waffles. They were delicious.” 

 

“I like making little houses out of waffles,” the worker said again, 

 

“You do?” Steve said, smile thinning out a bit at the unexpected admission. 

 

“It’s kinda my thing.” the worker shrugged and grinned. Steve stared at him and couldn’t help but feel the immediate surge of affection, and feeling connected to this man even though he could have sworn he’d never seen him before in his life. 

 

“What’s your name?” the construction worker asked again. 

 

“I’m Steve.” 

 

“I’m Tony. Nice to meet you,” 

\----

 

Next, Tony brought Lucky, the Bartons’ golden retriever puppy, with him. He dressed Lucky up in a sky blue doggy Aloha shirt that he was assured by Lila looked cute on the puppy. Just to be safe and to amp up the cuteness factor, Tony decided to wear a blue Aloha shirt to match Lucky. Steve wouldn’t be able to resist the combination of cute puppy and cute guy, he thought. 

 

“Alright, pal. When he stops, let him pet you and look cute.” Tony set Lucky down on the side of the road. 

 

“Go to the middle of the road. Thank you. Right there. Perfect.” he urged Lucky. The puppy walked obligingly to the middle of the road then plopped down there, waiting for all the world like the cutest thing in existence. 

 

Steve was driving up the dirt road on his way back home from the diner when he noticed a piece of plastic had become stuck to the engine. He tried to bat it away with his foot to no avail. As he sped up, he tried to dislodge the plastic, this time resorting to take one of his hands off the handlebar to reach down for the offending article. 

 

Up ahead, Tony saw Steve’s motorcycle heading their way. But what’s strange was Steve wasn’t even looking up as he rode the bike. 

 

“What the hell is he doing?” Tony wondered aloud. Tony realized belatedly that Steve was not gonna look up from whatever he was looking at and that if he continued his trajectory, Lucky was gonna be roadkill on the side of the road. 

 

“Oh, no..Oh my God. Oh my…!!!” Tony couldn’t bear to watch. He put both of his hands on his face to shield his eyes from the horror as he felt the motorcycle drove past him in a rumble of engine and dust. He didn’t hear any thudding sounds or any pained yelp from Lucky so he hoped nothing too bad happened this time. 

 

Sure enough, Lucky was still sitting on the middle of the road, unharmed though his Aloha shirt was a bit disheveled. Steve seemed to have swerved in time to avoid him. 

 

“Okay that didn’t work.” Tony remarked. 

 

Lucky woofed quietly. 

\----

This time Tony brought Quill with him. His plan was to have Quill beat him up, not for real of course, and have Steve play the Clark Kent to his Lois Lane. 

 

“Okay this is him.” Tony said, “start beating me up and make it look good.” Tony assumed his position lying down on the grass with Quill standing over him. 

 

“Help!” he yelled, just as soon Quill started fake kicking him on the side. 

 

“Give me your wallet!” Quill said, “Okay,  _ haole _ , what do you think? You can come to this island, eat our pineapple--” he started hitting Tony in the back. 

 

“Ow! Help me! Ow!” Tony yelled. Then in a lower voice, he said to Quill, “take it easy. Not so hard,” 

 

“Trying to bang our women,” Quill continued, getting pretty into his role, “making my sister-in-law clean your house.”

 

“Okay, easy. What does Nebula have to do with this? Relax. Ow!” Tony yelped as Quill literally kicked his ass. 

 

Then, Tony spotted Steve’s motorcycle was idling at the side of the road. Playing his role as victim, he implored, “hey! Hey! Help me, please!” 

 

“Stupid  _ haole _ !” Quill was still yelling and kicking. When suddenly from behind, Steve grabbed his shoulder and hauled him around to punch him in the face. Quill dropped like a sack of potatoes on the ground. Then Steve started kicking him. 

 

“Yeah, that’s right! Take that! And that!” Steve yelled as he kicked Quill’s torso. Quill tried his best to wriggle away from Steve’s attacks but the man was relentless. 

 

“You got him! Enough!” Tony exclaimed, trying to spare Quill from some of the beatings. Steve didn’t look like he was holding anything back. Quill started got up and run away when Steve turned to him. 

 

“Are you okay?” 

 

“Yes I’m --.” 

 

“Okay, I’ll be right back. Hey! Come here!” Steve said, then took off after Quill. 

 

“No, no, no, no! I think he’s had enough!” Tony yelled after them, but Steve continued to give chase after Quill. “Aw, I’m sorry.” 

 

“Ow, my eye!” Quill moaned as Tony saw Steve caught up to him and land another punch to his face. Quill dropped to the ground and from Tony’s position he could see Steve whaling on him again. 

 

“You got him!” 

 

“Not good enough!” Steve said, followed by more punching sounds and pained moans from Quill. Tony couldn’t deny that seeing Steve being protective with righteous anger was hot as fuck. Those muscles were definitely not just for show. Quill was a pretty fit guy and the fact that Steve could knock him down with just one punch showed just how strong he was. Tony’s body shuddered delightedly at the prospect of Steve man-handling him in the bedroom. Tony’s heart would probably give away, but damn what a way to go. 

 

“Ow, Kamehameha!” Tony heard Quill moaned in between the punching. 

 

“He learned his lesson…” Tony tried again pitifully, knowing Steve wasn’t listening to him. Finally Steve deemed Quill had received enough beatings and walked back to Tony. 

 

“What’s your name?” he asked. 

 

“My name’s Tony. You did good.” 

 

“Hi. Sorry. I’m in a community watch program, and --”

 

“Oh, you crazy asshole!” 

 

Quill yelled as he ran through the hills, away from them. Tony winced, he’s gonna have to apologize to that man for all the trouble he went through. Or maybe just buy him a sports car or two, that would be easier. 

 

“Yeah, yeah. Keep running!!!” Steve shouted. 

 

“Okay, okay. He’s gone now.” Tony tried to placate him. Steve looked back and aimed such a sweet smile at him, Tony decided he’s going to buy Quill three sports cars. 

\----

Seeing Steve unleashed his inner superhero made Tony giddy and enamored that he chose to stage another cliche life-saving scenario. This time he was gonna pretend to be car jacked and left to die on the side of the road. 

 

And so here he was at the same road side, with his hands taped together playing a kidnap victim for Steve to rescue. He patiently waited on the usual time when Steve would pass by. A few minutes passed by with no sign of Steve when he spotted a black pick-up truck coming his way. When the truck stopped by him, Tony didn’t bother looking up from where he was drawing on the blueprint of the latest 10 year model for the arc reactor prototype. 

 

“Don’t worry. I called the cops already. I’m all set.” 

 

“Yeah? You’re all set for this, Mr. Smarty?” Bucky’s voice startled him out of his concentration. He looked up and saw Joe driving the black pick up truck with Bucky on the seat next to him flexing the metal plates of the prosthetic limb Tony designed. 

 

“Oh...Shit.”

 

“Yeah, well when you’re finished playing your little carjacked crap on my son, come by the house.” Joe gruffly informed him. 

 

“Okay.” 

 

Twenty minutes later and here he was, back at the Rogers household. He went and searched for Joe and Bucky, finding them near the water, working on what looked to be a 1967 Mercury. Joe spotted him and glanced at Bucky in silent conversation. 

 

“There’s something I wanna show you. Come with me.” he directed at Tony, walking off to what Tony guess was a garage that had long been converted to a storage space. 

 

“ _ Wouldn’t it be nice, if we could wake up in the morning when the day is new-- _ ”

 

As they approached the garage, Tony could hear the sound of someone singing. It sounded terrible and completely off-key but from the timber and pitch of the voice, Tony knew it was Steve singing an old Beach Boys song. 

 

Joe opened the door a smidge and Tony took a peek inside to Steve standing on a ladder painting a mural of what looked to be the New York skyline and singing from the top of his lungs. Joe closed the door again, and addressed him. 

 

“We figured it out. He only sings on the days he meets you.” 

 

“You’re kidding me. That song?” 

 

“It was mine and his mom’s song. When his mother was alive, Steve used to make me take that Beach Boys tape on every single tour I went on. He knew it would make me miss his mother and want to come home that much sooner.” 

 

Tony grinned, “I gotta tell you, Sir. I’m seeing a whole new side of you that makes me think you’re human after all.” 

 

Joe quirked his eyebrows, “Let me ask you something. What’s in it for you? What do you get out of this?” 

 

“I don’t know...” Tony answered, Steve’s terrible singing/shouting was still going on in the background. “But wouldn’t you wanna spend an hour a day with that?” Tony asked, as Steve screeched another part of the song. 

 

“Actually no. Stevie sings like shit,” Bucky confessed. “What?” Joe rolled his eyes at him. 

 

“Can I ask you guys something?” Tony started, “What’s gonna happen down the line? Someday he’s gonna wake up and look in the mirror and notice his face has aged 10 years overnight?” 

 

“You know something, Tony. I worry about that every damn day of my life.” 

\----

That morning Steve woke up at dawn as usual. After his daily morning run and weight lifting session, he showered and dressed in his grey shirt and jeans, getting ready for the day. By eight he was already on the bike on the way to the Hukilau cafe. He spotted Sue’s new haircut as she served him his coffee and complimented her on how well it looked. Soon, he had his waffles to build his Teepee with and settled in to catch up on his readings. 

 

“Pardon me.” A voice startled him out of his readings. He looked up and saw a man, brunette, a couple of years older than him with soft hair and beautiful eyes, smiling softly and talking to him. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I notice that we were both eating alone, and I thought perhaps I could sit with you. Maybe build a syrup jacuzzi for your waffle house.” 

Steve squinted his eyes at the stranger. Is he seriously being hit on in the middle of a diner? “Oh, that would be nice. But I...have a boyfriend, so…I’m sorry.” 

 

“Aw…Are you making up a fake boyfriend so you can get rid of me?” the man chuckled. 

 

“No.” Steve tried to look offended at the man’s insinuation, even though that was clearly what he was trying to do. 

 

“Really? What’s his name, then?” 

 

Steve thought for a moment, “Ringo.” 

 

The man quirked his eyebrows, “Is his last name Starr?” 

 

“No. McCartney.” Steve sassed back. 

 

“McCartney. Okay.” 

 

Just then, Steve noticed a cop at the cafe’s parking lot and he was looking at his bike with too much interest. “Oh no!” 

 

“Alright. I’m sorry.” 

 

“No, not you. That cop is writing me a ticket!” As soon as he realized the cop was in fact writing him a ticket, Steve stood up and walked right out the door. 

 

“Oh no, no, no. I wouldn’t go out if I were you.” Tony stopped short in the middle of the diner. He knew if Steve received a ticket, that ticket would have today’s date on it and Steve would, for lack of better word, freaked the fuck out. 

 

“What are you waiting for!” Sue urged, “Go!” 

 

When Tony got outside, Steve was already arguing with the cop about the ticket. 

 

“The tags don’t expire for another seven months, Sir.” Steve told the cop. 

 

“They expire May of this year.” 

 

“No! No, no, they expire May of next year.” Steve insisted. 

 

“Officer, I think there has been a misunderstanding,” Tony tried to defuse the situation. Next to him, Sue was calmly urging Steve to go back to the diner. 

 

“I don’t.” Officer Hard Ass said resolutely. He ripped the ticket out from its book and handed it to Steve. 

 

“This is ridiculous. I’m not paying for this. It’s October!” Steve insisted as he snatched the ticket away. Too annoyed to be polite, he turned to the man carrying a newspaper and grabbed it from him, “Excuse me can I borrow this? Look, October!”

 

Except it wasn’t October. The date written on the front page of the man’s copy of  _ The Honolulu Star _ was November 9th 2017. 

 

“What?” 

 

Steve ran to the newspaper dispenser located on the front porch of the dinner. He opened it and took out all the copies of newspaper they have today. Each one of them sported the same date.  _ November 9th, November 9th, November 9th… _

 

Steve had a father and a best friend to confront. 

 

He arrived home in a cloud of dirt and loud rumblings. He had barely parked his motorcycle properly before he saw his father rushing out the house to approach him. Steve only had to look at his father to know that he wouldn’t like what came next. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, comments and kudos are really appreciated. I cherish and adore every single comments I got. Reading them brings a smile to my face every time without fail.


	7. Runaway Train

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve knows the truth now. How will things change from here?

They told him everything. The accident, how they worked everyday to make sure Steve didn’t know that it wasn’t October 13th of last year anymore. Dad and Bucky showed him the pile of newspaper, all dated October 13th, and the ice chest full of pineapples. His whole life was a lie, a set up. How could Bucky and Dad do this to him? Tricking him every day for almost a year. God, what that must have cost them. What that must have cost  _ him _ . Suddenly everything suffocated Steve. He ran out of the house towards the boardwalk in their backyard and ran all the way to the edge to scream out his frustration, rage and sadness to the sea. Steve always found the water calming, but right now as he stared out to the sea, all he could feel was the burgeoning rage and desperation within him. He fell to his knees and sobbed, feeling small and helpless the way he used to as a small and sickly child. 

 

He could hear footsteps approaching him and saw the guy from the diner standing next to Bucky, a pained look on his face. He looked hurt and sad on Steve’s behalf. His hazel brown eyes were misty, he looked like he was holding back tears. How nice of him to sympathize with a stranger. 

 

“Son, these are from the accident,” Dad offered him a thick leather bound folder. Steve opened it to found hand drawn get well cards from his students. As he went through the folder he saw the newspaper reporting of the accident, a picture of him lying on the hospital bed with his face all bruised up, a copy of his medical report. Steve could feel a jolt tugging at the back of his head. He gasped. “I can feel it.”

 

“You were in the hospital for three months, Stevie.” Dad continued. Three months, Steve spared a thought to how much that long stay in the hospital must have cost him. God, everything was so messed up. What has happened to his life then? Has he been stuck in his own version of a time loop while everyone else in his life moved on, continued on with their lives, writing Steve out of theirs? A sudden thought appeared, that this was just like if he had died in that accident. He’s basically a dead man walking. 

 

“I have to talk to this doctor.” Steve declared, “I need to hear it from him.” 

 

“You have, Steve. Many times.” 

 

“I have?” Steve didn’t know what he knew and what he didn’t anymore. What else had happened since the accident? 

 

“I’ll take him.” the stranger piped in, “I have to hear for myself too.” 

 

And so the four of them piled in to Joe’s pickup truck with Joe driving. Steve and Tony sat in the back, while Bucky was in the passenger’s seat. Steve realized that in their haste to leave the house, they took the brown journal with them. 

“Buck, just take this, okay? I can’t…I can’t look at it anymore.” Steve sighed, pushing the book towards Bucky who took it obligingly. 

 

“It’s gonna be okay, Stevie.” 

 

“Don’t call me Stevie. I barely know you.” 

 

“Son, you’re sort of dating him,” 

 

Steve stopped short at that. He’s dating this good looking guy with the strange beard? “But I…” How did that work, if he never even met this guy before. 

 

“Sorry I’m not better looking.” the man, Steve’s boyfriend apparently, shrugged and quipped deprecatingly. Steve could only look at him in confusion. Well at least, the accident hadn’t completely diminished his aesthetics. The man looked like a piece of art even in his ridiculous pink pineapple Aloha shirt. 

 

“What else has happened since last October? What about my students?” Steve asked. 

 

“Miss Campbell took over your class.” 

 

“Did Bruce marry that Norwegian guy?” 

 

“Yup. They live in Australia now.” Bucky answered. 

 

“Did T’Challa finally win the Mr. Hawaii contest?”

 

“He didn’t know there was gonna be a urine test.” 

 

“Wow.” Steve furrowed his brow. T’Challa was on steroids? The guy always insisted that whatever he was taking was an herbal supplement he bought from Happy Earth. He looked over to his boyfriend (and wow how weird was that?), “do we have sex?” 

 

Both Dad and Bucky immediately stiffened. Steve could tell they were dying to know the answer as much as Steve did. 

 

“No, we don’t. Just so everybody knows that. We want to.” he chuckled nervously. 

 

Steve was silent for a beat. “So you guys have to just lie to me everyday.” 

 

The silence was more than enough to answer that question.  

\----

They pulled up to Queen’s Medical Center soon enough and Dad maneuvered the car towards the Traumatic Brain Injury center on the campus. Steve couldn’t say whether he’s ever been here or not. Maybe he had, but of course he wouldn’t remember if he had. The building was built in that simplistic, utilitarian style that most modern buildings seem to have now. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows and high ceiling let in plenty of natural sunlight . They walked inside passing the front desk to head straight to Steve’s doctor’s office. 

 

One of the wait staff seemed to recognize Steve and called out to him. “Hey Steve! Good to see you again!” 

 

Steve looked questioningly at him, not able to place his face to anyone he knew in his life and walked past without acknowledging his greeting. 

 

“What the hell’s his problem?” he complained to his deskmate. 

“He doesn’t remember who you are, brah.” 

“Oh yeah…” 

 

Steve’s doctor was Dr. Abraham Erskine, a world renowned neurologist. He was a middle aged German man with a calm demeanor that exuded wisdom and confidence. When he got the call from Joe Rogers about Steve needing to meet with him to discuss his condition, he immediately cleared his afternoon to meet with one of his special patients. Steve’s condition, known in the field as Goldfield’s syndrome, was rare. And during Steve’s recovery in the hospital, he had discussed with Joe the possibility of Steve staying in the Institute. The chance to document Steve as a case study was part of the one of the main reasons. He also became fond of the young artist when he treated him in the 3 months following the accident. So he was disappointed when Joe decided he would continue Steve’s recuperation at home, but Erskine was a father too. He understood the innate need to protect your child no matter how old they grew. 

 

So to hear the Rogerses asking him for a consultation after a year of no contact was surprising. He booked Steve for an MRI to see whether there any issues with Steve. Once done, he retrieved the scans from the technician and headed to his office where his patient waited. In addition to Steve and Joe, Steve’s best friend and ersatz brother, Bucky, was also in the room. What was even more surprising was the fact the Tony Stark was also in the room with them. The man was sitting next to Steve in one of the guest chair’s in his office, drawing a rough sketch for some contraption on a StarkPad. Steve was looking at the man, a captivated look on his face. 

 

“What is this gonna do?” Steve asked Tony Stark ( _ Mein Gott _ , Tony Stark was in his office!) who continued sketching, without a thought to other people in the room except Steve. 

 

“It’s a neural transmitter combined with a virtual reality device. When I’m done, it will be able to retrieve memories from the hippocampus and display it for audiences to interact with and manipulate.” Tony answered absentmindedly, “it will help veterans combating their PTSD and traumatic brain injury patients deal with memory gaps following their accidents.” 

 

“That’s amazing, Tony.” Steve smiled softly at him, seemingly mesmerized by his companion. 

Erskine watched as Tony Stark blushed when he heard Steve’s complement. “No-- It’s nothing, just a rough sketch. We still need to fabricate it before we can even use it, then--” 

 

Erskine cleared his throat, making his presence known. “Gentlemen, if I may.” He placed Steve’s recent scans and the scans done one year ago on the backlight. 

 

“These are your brain scans, Steve. I’m afraid they show no improvement from a year ago. The temporal lobe was severely damaged in the accident.” Erskine pointed out to a section of the scan that showed the lobe, “There are scar tissues here that we believe impaired your brain’s ability to convert and store new information in the hippocampus. The condition has come to be known as Goldfield syndrome.” 

 

“Who’s Goldfield?” Tony asked. 

 

“A brilliant Lithuanian psychiatrist. He himself suffered temporal lobe damage. It took him four years to publish his findings, because he has to keep starting over from scratch.” 

 

At that, Steve chuckled. Tony was glad to hear a little bit of laughter could still come from him. Steve was strong. He would get through this. 

 

“Obviously, your sense of humor are still intact, Steven. You have a magnificent amygdala, as well.” Dr. Erskine smiled at him. 

 

They walked back to the doctor’s desk where Joe and Bucky were sitting. “In any case, Steve, your condition is stable but most likely permanent. I’m sorry, son.” 

 

Steve tilted his head down, fearing that this visit to Dr. Erskine would end with those exact words being said to him. His condition was permanent. Tomorrow, he would have no idea he had heard any of these before and probably ask his Dad and Bucky to take him back to Dr. Erskine only to be told these same facts all over again. And Tony, he would forget about him again and about these feelings that came to the forefront whenever he glimpsed at the man. 

 

“But, it could be worse.” Dr. Erskine was still talking, breaking through Steve’s reverie. 

 

“Oh yeah? How?” 

\----

 

Dr. Erskine escorted to an area in the institute that seemed to be a place for patient to convalesce. As they passed through Steve saw that someone had set up a bouquet of flowers and fruit to be used as the model for a still-life painting that some of the patients were drawing on their easel and drawing pad. The sight tugged at heartstrings, knowing that art could be such a powerful tool in healing the mind. Steve made a mental note to remind himself to inquire for volunteering opportunities at the Institute. 

“And now gentlemen, I would like to introduce our most distinguished clinical subject, Tom.” Dr. Erskine gestured to a man, sitting alone in a room with sparse furnishing other than a table, some chairs and a table full of brain teaser toys. 

 

“Hi, I’m Tom.” Tom introduced himself genially to the incoming guests. They all shook hands with Tom, introducing themselves one by one. 

 

“Oh, those are cool flip flops,” Tom addressed Bucky, “where’d you get em?” 

 

“You like those? Actually it’s a funny story--” Bucky started to say when he was cut off by Tom extending his hand in salutations. 

 

“Hi, I’m Tom.” 

 

They went around introducing themselves again. Then Dr. Erskine spoke, “Tom lost part of his brain in a hunting accident. His memory only lasted ten seconds.” 

 

“I was in accident? Oh my God, that’s terrible!” Tom turned to Dr. Erskine. 

 

The doctor calmly told him that, “It’s okay. you’ll get over it in about seven seconds.”

 

And then went around introducing himself again. 

 

“Hey Tom, can I tell you a little secret?” Tony pulled Tom closer to whisper in his ear. Afterwards Tom laughed and pointed at Bucky, “Don’t you think you’re a little old to still be having a goth phase?” 

 

Bucky frowned at Tom and Tony in annoyance as everyone laughed at him. “Yeah, yeah. Watch yourself, Tom.” 

\----

It was late by the time they got back to the Rogers’ home in Kane’ohe. Steve looked ready to pass out, which was understandable considering the day he had. Unsurprisingly, he announced that he was going to go to bed once they parked the car. 

 

“Good night, you guys. I’m gonna turn in for the night. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

 

“Night, Stevie.” 

 

Tony watched the dejected slump of his shoulders and wished he could share that burden with him, or at least give him a hug to comfort him, let him know Tony wasn’t going anywhere no matter what. Steve stopped on the stairs and turned, “And I guess I’ll see you too?” he asked Tony. 

 

“Yeah. You had a rough day today, I’m sorry. I hope you get some rest tonight.” Tony smiled reassuringly at Steve. It seemed to work, Steve shot him that small half-smile that made Tony wanted to cuddle him close. 

 

“Okay. Good night.” He turned to leave and Tony turned to Bucky who was already asking if he were gonna call for a helicopter ride to get home. 

 

“Hey.” Steve called out again, “Thank you for being so kind to me today. I don’t want you to strike out tomorrow, so maybe you could talk to me about...lilies.” 

 

“Lilies?” 

 

“They were Ma’s favorite flowers. I’m a sucker for lilies.” 

 

“Thanks for the tip. Good night,” 

 

With one last smile to Tony, Steve turned around and entered the house. Tony was still standing where Steve left him, catching his breath. Mesmerized by today’s turn of events, Tony smiled to himself. Life was looking up after all. “My oh my…” 

 

“Lover boy,” Joe started, “if you’re not in a rush, stick around. You’ve earned yourself a couple of Longboards.” 

 

They went to the lanai on the boardwalk, drinking beers and chatting the night away. 

 

“So what are your plans when you’re finished with the Arc Reactor construction?” Joe asked. 

 

“Actually I’m planning on persuading the State of Hawaii to use my arc reactor techs to power all of the islands, not just Oahu. So right now, we’re still building for one reactor. But hopefully, with the right buy out and incentives I can get them to give me permission on building an arc reactor on all the islands. Providing more jobs for the people and a more sustainable way of life. If we can show how efficient and beneficial  this technology is in the real world, then we can start convincing other states or even other countries to try it out too.” 

 

“Sounds kinda nerdy.” Bucky commented. 

 

“Thank you. Nerdy is my business.” 

 

“How long’s it gonna take?” 

 

“The construction should take about 2 years, give or take.” 

 

“I guess you won’t miss days like these, huh?” Bucky gestured around him. 

“Well days like these wouldn’t be so bad.” Tony countered, “when you guys told Steve, he’s not just finding out about the accident. He’s finding out that his life was basically a set-up. I think that’s what freaked him out the most.” 

 

“What, you’re an expert now?” Bucky looked annoyed at Tony. 

 

“No. I’m just saying I wish there was another way besides, ‘Sorry we couldn’t trick you today, here’s some pictures of your broken head’.” 

 

“You want a broken head, huh, smart guy?” 

 

“Why, you gonna give it to him?” Joe snarked back. 

 

“No, Uncle Joe. I thought you was gonna do it.” 

 

Tony set the beer down on the table and got up, “No one’s gonna break my head, guys. My helicopter ride’s here anyway. I’m gonna split.” 

 

“Well don’t go just because my nephew’s psychotic.” Joe directed at Bucky who was scowling down at his cigar. 

 

“Good night. Sweet dreams. And Barnes, keep that joint lubricated.” 

 

As Tony walked back to his car, he spied the brown leather bound book containing Steve’s case file and decided to borrow it for the night. 

\----

Steve got back from breakfast that morning feeling good about the day ahead of him. He had his usual waffles and coffee, made a pretty sturdy waffle house if he could say so and this afternoon, he’ll go pineapple-picking with Dad for his birthday. 

 

As he parked his bike in the usual spot next to Buck’s car, someone called out to him. “Excuse me, Steve Rogers?” The man was carrying a large bouquet of Stargazer lilies in his hands, “Delivery for you.” 

 

“For me?” Steve stopped and stared, admiring the bouquet. “Oh they’re beautiful. Who are they from?” 

 

The man winced, “I can’t tell you that. It’s a secret admirer. He also wants you to have this.” 

 

A secret admirer? Steve wasn’t a stranger to being admired. He knew his body was the type of body that people liked to look at, but to have someone actually bold enough to send him something was a novelty. Especially since as the guy he was usually the one who was expected to send the bouquets and presents. 

 

“Who’s your friend, Steve?” Dad asked as he walked out of the house. 

 

“Oh well, I don’t know, we just met.” he gestured at the man in front of him. His light green Aloha shirt was decorated with lily flower motifs and he was quite handsome. Steve thought he wouldn’t have minded if this man was his secret admirer. “But, look, I got a secret admirer,” he gestured to the flowers and the wrapped package the man handed to him. 

 

“Well, what’s this?” 

 

“ It looks like a DVD.” 

 

“A DVD of what?” 

 

“I don’t know. Guess I’ll have to find out.” Steve decided walking eagerly towards the house to open his presents. But he stopped, “Oh almost forgot. Happy birthday, Pops!” he hugged Joe then left. 

 

Once Steve was safely in the house, Joe approached Tony, “That’s right. Happy birthday, Sir. What are you, 200 years old now?” 

 

“Cut the crap, Tony. What the hell are you doing?” 

 

“I just wanna try something different. If it doesn’t work, we’ll only be wasting one day,” Tony implored Joe to understand. There should be a better way to help Steve come to terms with his condition and let him lead a somewhat normal life. This Groundhog day parody they’re playing couldn’t last forever. 

 

Steve popped the DVD into the media player connected to their TV and sat down on the couch in the living room. The video started with a black screen that said “ _ Good Morning Steve _ ” with “ _ Wouldn’t It Be Nice _ ” by the Beach Boys playing as the soundtrack. He’s liking this so far. He glanced at the delivery guy who was inside his house. It’s starting to look more and more like delivery guy was his secret admirer. 

 

The screen changed to some words. It read:  _ Everything is going to be okay...but here are some things you missed this year… _

 

The scene changed to a montage of news of events he didn’t remember seeing: Mauna Kea erupting, Jackie Chan awarded an honorary Oscar, Queer Eye for Straight Guys was rebooted and now on Netflix, the Mets won the World Series (Really! How could Steve have missed that!) before cutting to black with the words “. _..just kidding _ .” 

 

The scene changed again. This time with montages of a campaign victory rally with a caption “Trump Elected President” and the words “ _...not kidding _ .” 

 

The next scene feature the words “ _ You don’t remember this because… _ ” and a newspaper clipping showing his dad’s pickup lodged to the side of a tree with the headline “ _ Stray Cow causes accident. _ ” appeared next. Followed by a picture of himself lying on a hospital bed, hooked up to all manners of machinery and bruised up. 

 

Steve was shaking. He was in an accident that caused him to not remember everything that happened after the accident? Was this a prank? He looked around the house at his Dad and Buck, they both look distraught and so was the delivery guy. This was real, then. It was the truth. His head started to throb the more he read the newspaper clipping on screen. Flashes of memories of the accident started to come back to him. 

 

Then noises drew him back to the TV. This time the scene changed to what looked like the inside of the Hukilau Cafe. 

 

“Okay I think it’s on.” a voice said on the screen, and delivery guy was on screen, “Go, go.” 

 

“ _ Aloha _ . I’m Tony Stark. We met here at the Hukilau Cafe,” Steve turned his head toward delivery guy, Tony, wondering what he might have to say, “about a year after your accident. I like you and you like me. Most days...”

 

Oh my God, Steve thought. Has he been dating Tony this whole time? And for how long?

 

“Every day is different. But basically this is what happens, Steve.” Steve looked at him again. Yeah definitely dating. 

 

“Cooper Phillip Jones, here take the camera.” a voice said on screen. Then the camera was passed down to a little boy, not more than 7 years old with precocious blue eyes and messy dark blond hair. 

 

“Okay, I got it, Dad.” 

 

“Don’t drop it.” 

 

“Okay, all right. Here we are, right here. Uh, your part in this reenactment will be played my good friend, Clint.” 

 

The camera panned to a man sitting on one of the booths at the Hukilau cafe with a haphazardly built waffle teepee on the table, his dirty blond hair was slicked back to imitate Steve’s own hairstyle. He was wearing a grey shirt much like the one Steve was wearing right now and a pair of board shorts. The man must have stuffed some paper towels up his chest or something to make his pecs look more exaggerated than usual in an attempt to look more like Steve. It was ridiculous and Steve couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped him. 

 

“ _ Aloha _ . Sorry about your brain. I had an accident too. Believe it or not, this is my good ear.” he pointed to his left ear. It looked a bit wonky with the lobe all squished and a hearing aid can be seen in the ear canal. 

 

“We ready?” On screen Tony asked. “Yeah.” 

 

“Hi. I like that waffle teepee that you have built.” On screen Tony said. 

 

“Ooh. So nice of you to notice. Please sit down.” On screen Clint/Steve said back in a high effeminate voice. Steve chuckled. 

 

“I would love to,” On screen Tony sat down, “my name is Tony, by the way.” 

 

“My name is  _ Steve _ .” 

 

“Smell my fingers?” On screen Clint/Steve brought Tony’s fingers to his nose, “Oooh grease! Right on.” Steve giggled again at the antics on screen. 

 

“So, Steve. I work with engines.” On screen Tony elaborated. 

 

“Engines make me super horny.” And On screen Clint/Steve started rubbing his “pecs”. 

 

“That’s not funny. Don’t rub those. I’m sorry, Mr. Rogers, if you’re watching. It’s very late and my friend is unstable.” Joe shoot a dirty look at Tony, who ducked his head ashamedly. 

 

“Oh, come on, stop with the licking. You’re making me sick! Steve, I’m sorry.” On screen Clint/Steve was now licking his “pecs” bending his neck at an awkward angle to do so. Steve laughed out loud at Clint’s antics on screen. Bucky shot Tony a look of approval at succeeding in making Steve not only smile, but also laugh. 

 

The camera then focused solely on Tony, “Anyway, I wish I was making all this stuff up. But the good news is, there’s so many people out there who care about you. Your Dad and Bucky and a couple of your friends here at the Hukilau who’d like to say a few words to you.” 

 

The scene changed to Sue, standing outside the cafe and holding a black and white picture of her and Sarah. “Steve, as you know your mother and I were best friends.” she said gesturing to the photo in her hand, “that’s why I promised her I would always look out for you. Sometimes life isn’t very fair. But we still have you.” 

 

Steve closed his eyes in sadness. Sue reminded him of Ma. Some days it was all he could do not to cry at the sight of her. 

 

“Oh and if you’re wondering about this guy who made the tape, he’s, uh, he’s okay.” Sue continued. Steve looked at Tony. Okay, huh? 

 

Then it was Nick’s turn in a close up, “hey Steve, since you lost memory I have been elected the governor of Hawaii.” then camera zoomed out revealing Nick at the back of the cafe, taking out the trash. “Nah, just kidding. I’m too smart.” 

 

The scene changed again to the interior of the cafe. Kids, Steve guessed they were Clint’s kids, were running around and creating a ruckus. 

 

“Lila Frances, get your brother out of the dishwasher!” Clint stood up, still in his Steve costume to presumably get one of his children out of the dishwasher. 

 

“Uh, so whenever you’re ready we’d all love to talk to you and answer any questions you have, and you’re the best, Steve.  _ Aloha _ .” Tony waved at the camera, and the screen turned black as the video ended. 

 

They were silent for a while when Bucky turned off the TV. “How many times have I watched this?” Steve asked quietly. 

 

“This is the first time.” Joe answered. Steve nodded and excused himself to go to their home gym. 

 

Two hours later, Steve was standing on the lanai in his workout gear, looking out at the water trying to gather his thoughts together. 

 

Tony and Joe were standing behind Steve discussing today’s events. 

 

“Okay, so he whaled on a punching bag until the seams almost burst, that’s not too bad. I bet in an hour or so, he’ll be ready to have some lunch, see some friends, get his life back. We could do this everyday.” Tony explained to Joe. This system he’s trying was definitely better than tricking Steve into believing everything’s fine. 

 

“We’ll leave that up to him,” was all Joe said. Steve chose that time to walk back towards them. He looked apprehensive, still struggling with the bombshell of a news he had to deal with earlier this morning. 

 

“So how’s the cow?” Steve asked them.

 

“Same as you. Everyday they had to convince her she’s a cow.” Tony joked. The soft dimply smile stretching out on Steve’s face was worth every moment he spent making that video with Clint and the little devil spawns. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are awesome! 
> 
> I have finished writing up the main chapters of this story just need to write the epilogue. I'm thinking of writing another story that is another movie AU. Would you guys be interested in reading that? Drop me a comment below to let me know! 
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are loved and cherished <3 Besos


	8. High and Dry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve, Tony and falling in love every single day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg you guys. I can't believe this story has been viewed more than 700 times since I first published it. I'm so grateful to everyone who took a chance on this novice writer and took the time to read and comment on the story. I'm eternally grateful <3

Steve wanted to visit the scene of the accident in the interest of full disclosure of what the accident entailed, so Tony drove them up the shore to the pineapple plantation. Tony was nervous, yet excited at the same time. This would be the first time they spent together outside of the diner. For Steve, today was the first time he met Tony while Tony has gotten to know Steve better from the conversations they exchanged at the side of the road during Tony’s attempts to meet him. He thought the trip would be awkward, but he shouldn’t have fretted. He and Steve seemed to have an undeniable connection that no memory loss could sever. 

 

“So that scene you reenacted with your friend at the diner,” Steve started, wanting to know more about how their  _ relationship _ worked, “is that what happened everyday, when we meet?” 

 

“Well, some days it happened the way we showed you. But most days what happens is you reject my flirtations with outrageous schemes.” Tony grinned at him from the driver’s seat. 

 

“Really? What have I done so far?” Steve asked curiously. 

 

“There was that one time where you pretended not to speak English,” Tony recounted. “You started talking in some language I never heard before. And I’m fluent in five actual languages and two fictional languages.” 

 

Steve laughed, “and what languages are those, hmm?” 

 

“English, Italian, French, Spanish and Mandarin. Also Elvish and Klingon.” Tony answered proudly, “I’m a polyglot and yet I know not what you speak of, Steven. Were you casting a spell on me?” 

 

“What did I say?” 

 

“Hell if I know. J, what did Steve say?” Tony addressed someone named Jay, confusing Steve. 

 

“Mister Rogers said the following words, Sir,” a smooth voice with British accent answered Tony, startling Steve who didn’t expect anyone to answer. A recording of Steve’s voice then played on the car’s stereo. When Steve heard what was being played to him, he laughed out loud. 

 

“Oh my God, Tony.” Steve let out a wheeze, he hadn’t laugh this hard in ages, “I was reciting the Lord’s Prayer to you in Gaelic.” 

 

“What?!” Tony boggled, eyes widening, “Why the fuck.” 

 

“Guess I was trying to cast out the demon in you,” Steve smirked back at him. 

“Yeah well. It didn’t work. Still here ain’t I?” 

 

Steve smiled softly, his blue eyes were kind as he looked at Tony. He guessed he should feel flattered that someone of Tony’s caliber was running around making a fool of himself at Steve’s expense. Tony exuded earnest selflessness that Steve couldn’t seem to deny. The fact that he stuck around after days, or maybe even weeks, of dealing with Steve’s situation spoke louder than words ever could. Steve felt his heart clenched with something that felt a bit like gratitude, but more like overwhelming affection and fondness for the billionaire. His fingers itched to reach out and hold Tony’s hands but then he wondered if that was too forward of him. 

 

Then he remembered that for all intents and purposes they’d been dating for awhile now, so Steve threw caution to the wind and reached out to entwine his fingers with Tony’s. The small smile on Tony’s face and the fingers tightening their grip in Steve’s grasp told Steve he had done something right. 

 

Steve cleared his throat, “So, anything else I did worth mentioning?” 

 

“Well there was that time I told my gardener to beat me up on the side of the road, so that when you saw a helpless man fighting for his life, you’d come to my rescue, defeat the bad guy and then we’d chat. You know, real meet-cute.” Tony grinned snarkily at him. “And boy, did that work out great. I get to see you channel your inner Captain America and beat the shit out of Quill on my behalf. I never found violence to be such a turn on, but oh baby, did that mess me up.”

 

“Oh my God, Tony…” Steve rubbed his face exasperatedly, “I need to apologize to your gardener. I hope he’s okay?” 

 

Tony shrugged, “Meh, Quill’s fine. Nothing a cold compress and Advil can’t fix. And I bought him a Lamborghini for his troubles. He’s been generously compensated for his troubles.” 

 

And what could Steve say to that? Seems like he better brace himself for more of Tony’s shenanigans. 

 

“By the way, who was that guy you were talking to? Jay, was it?” 

 

“Oh, J is JARVIS. He’s my artificial intelligence. He runs my entire life. Say hi to Steve, J.” 

 

“Good to finally meet you, Mister Rogers. Sir has been talking about you incessantly for the past couple of weeks.” 

 

“You have an AI? Tony, that’s amazing!” 

 

Tony’s cheeks colored fetchingly, either at Steve’s compliments or because JARVIS just revealed his secrets. Steve thought it was a good look on him. 

“Oh, hush you.” he chided his AI, “Steve is only impressed because he will always be meeting you for the first time.” 

 

“To be fair, I think no matter how many times I meet JARVIS I will always be amazed. There’s nothing else in this world like him. Good to meet you, JARVIS.” Steve spoke, directing his words to the speaker where he thought JARVIS resided. 

 

Tony smiled at how excited Steve was by his creation. One of these days, Tony decided he would bring Steve to the workshop so he could meet the boys. 

 

“Oh, there was also one day where you pretended to be dating the fifth member of the Beatles…”

\----

They arrived at the pineapple plantation when the sun started to set. When Tony found out about Steve’s accident from Sue, he scoured the web and any local and state police database that might have relevant information and records on the accident. From there, he proceeded to conduct a reenactment of the accident with the aid of his holographic technologies. This was how he knew, there was nothing Joe could have done. That damned cow really did came out of nowhere, and had Joe not swerve to avoid hitting her the damages done to their bodies would be greater than the wounds they suffered. The scenarios Tony ran through included Joe not avoiding the cow,  or if they avoided the cow, but the tree was not in its place to break the car’s motion. Both scenarios ended with their vehicle turned over, killing both Joe and Steve. That tree was a blessing in disguise in the grand scheme of things. 

 

In any case, Tony’s obsessive examinations of the accident enabled him to have all the pertinent information which included the exact coordinates of the location, where the tree was and who owned that stray cow that started this whole mess. Obsession, thy name is Anthony Edward Stark. The sun was starting to set when they arrived, casting a golden glow on the scenery around them. 

 

“Wow, look, the trunk’s starting to heal.” Steve pointed at the tree. The approximate location where the car hit it was still open showing the cambium with no bark covering it. Steve could see a jagged mark where the car must have been lodged there at the time of the accident. 

 

“Yeah,” Tony nodded his assent, “don’t worry. You’ll get there.” 

 

Tony looked at Steve, bathed in the sunset glow. From his vantage point, all he could see was a silhouette of his figure, but his smile and the golden strands of his hair was unmistakably Steve. The afternoon wind gave Steve a windswept look that made him look even more irresistible in this light.  

 

“You know I never get to hang out with you at this time of the day. I gotta tell you in this light, you look...disgusting.” Tony said, jokingly. 

Steve pursed his lips in a small smile, tilted his head and let out a laugh, “Well, I don’t know how you get me to fall for that crazy beard every morning.” he walked towards Tony and poked Tony’s shoulder. 

 

“Oh, all I have to do is slide on my tight jeans and just kinda shake my ass in front of you. You know you can’t handle all this jelly.” Tony wriggled his hips outrageously in front of him. 

 

Steve laughed again, his hands caressing Tony’s face and smiling softly down at him, “Why can’t I have met you the day before the accident?” Steve sighed wistfully, walking away from the tree and reaching to hold Tony’s hand again.  

 

“Maybe that’s a good thing, you know. If you hang out with me for more than one day you’ll find out what a bore I am.” Tony tried to console Steve. 

 

“Well I have news for you, Mr. Stark. It takes less than a day.” Steve snarked back. Tony narrowed his eyes at him, recognizing a thinly veiled insult when he heard one. 

 

“You know something, that hurts. Your damaged temporal lobe is giving me so much pain and I’m gonna get you for that.” 

 

“Ooh, whatcha gonna do, Stark? Cute me to death?” 

 

Tony hissed playfully and started to run towards Steve aiming to tickle him. But Steve, being taller and heavier than Tony, easily caught his hands and grabbed him by the waist and hauled him up in a fireman’s carry. 

 

Tony was most definitely not turned on by Steve’s manhandling. Nope, not even a little bit. That was his phone in his pocket. 

 

“Steve! Steve, put me down you absolute neanderthal! You are so dead when I finally get my hands on you!” 

 

And Steve started running down the pineapple fields away from the tree and where they parked the car, with Tony in his hold, feeling carefree and unburdened for once. At this moment in time, his memory problems seemed far away and Steve found that there were better things to do than to wallow in misery. Having fun with Tony seemed to fit the bill. 

\----

Once he realized how many things he had missed since the accident, Steve resolved to start reconnecting with his friends and his old life again. A lot has happened since last year, and he’d be damned if he missed more. That night before he went to bed, he took the DVD Tony made for him and brought it up to his room. Steve had also written extensively of today’s event lest he forget about them the following morning. He placed the DVD and the journal by his bedside table to make sure they were the first thing he saw upon waking up. This way, he would be able start his day where he left off yesterday.  

 

When he woke up that morning, he found a new DVD and a bound notebook by his bed with a label that said  “Watch Me” and “Read Me” on both of the items respectively. Watching and reading them, Steve found out that he was in an accident and now had short term memory problems. The video and the journal both told him he was seeing Tony Stark and that the man tried his damnedest to make Steve fall for him every single day. Steve was flattered and flabbergasted at the same time. What’s a genius billionaire celebrity doing with a handicap like him? But Steve saw the way Tony looked on the video. He genuinely cared about Steve and wanted to help Steve deal with his traitorous brain. 

 

He spent the morning trying to come to terms with his new condition. It seemed he watched the video yesterday, at least according to the journal. So the video’s contents were up to date at least for now. The video mentioned him going to breakfast at Sue’s place every morning because he seemed to think it was still the Saturday of his Dad’s birthday. 

 

Oh God, that meant today wasn’t Dad’s birthday, was it? What day was it? 

 

He went downstairs trying to find Bucky or his Dad to make sure everything was well despite his cluelessness. He found Bucky in the kitchen, blearily pouring a cup of coffee. His hair was the same as Steve always remembered, long and messy. The stump that used to be his left arm was absent of the prosthetic designed for it. He was yawning as he spotted Steve at the entrance to the kitchen. 

 

“Morning, Stevie.” he greeted. And Steve felt like he was seeing Bucky in a new light for the first time, burdened with the knowledge of everything that his brother and father had to bear to care for him. He rushed to hug Bucky, startling the man. 

 

“Whoa! Stevie, what--” 

 

“I’m sorry, Buck. I’m sorry for what happened. You shouldn’t have to do this for me, you shouldn’t have live a lie just to spare me.” 

 

“What are you talking ab--” Bucky asked, confused at Steve’s behavior so early in the morning. But then he realized Steve must have seen the video Stark made him yesterday. 

 

“Oh, you saw the video, didn’t you?” Steve released Bucky from his embrace and nodded. “I know what happened, Buck. I think I’m remembering the accident too.” 

 

Bucky nodded. He motioned for Steve to sit at the the dining table and set a cup of coffee down in front of him. 

 

“I guess I’m no longer teaching?” Steve asked, staring at his coffee. Bucky shook his head silently. 

 

“Miss Campbell took over your class.” 

 

“What else has happened since last October?” Steve asked. In the back of his mind, he thought he must have Bucky this question before. And so Bucky ran down a quick list of happenings that occurred since last year. He told Steve about how he slowly recovered from PTSD with the help of counseling, and how the good days were slowly outnumbering the bad days now. Steve was glad to hear that Bucky’s recovering. If he lost Buck along with his memory, he didn’t think he would have survived. Bucky also gave him a brief rundown of what was up with their mutual friends. Steve found out that Sam has moved to the mainland, settling in Washington DC of all places. Jim was now principal of an elementary school, Bruce finally finished his postdoctoral training, married the Norwegian guy who used to hang around him all the time (Thor was his name, now Steve remembered), and moved to Australia after he was offered a faculty position there with his new husband. Peggy and Gabe Jones were also married now, to each other and Peggy was expecting their first child. 

 

“Have you told me any of this before?” Steve asked once Bucky finished recounting events that have occured. 

 

“Yeah, two days ago.” 

 

Steve closed his eyes, trying to swallow down his disappointment at missing so many milestones of his friends’ lives. Steve wished he could turn back time, but if wishes were fishes, Steve would be even richer than Tony Stark. All he could do now was pick up where he left off and hope he could get through this day by day. 

 

“What day is it?” he asked, realizing in all his haste he forgot to check today’s date. 

 

“Sunday,” Buck answered. 

 

“Is the Church still here?” Steve asked, willing at least one thing he remembered to stay the same. Bucky chuckled, “Oh yeah. It’s been there for 2000 years, Stevie. It ain’t goin’ nowhere anytime soon.” 

 

At least some things remained the same, Steve thought gratefully. 

\----

After morning mass, Steve went up to Father Doherty who looked surprised at seeing Steve among the congregants. Steve asked whether he’d be available to hear his confession right now and when the Father nodded his assent they went to the confessional booth. He seeked absolution for the masses he has missed after his accident and related to the priest the reason for his absence. Father Doherty seemed speechless as he took Steve’s confessions and sent him off with an order to recite the “Hail Mary” three times and told him that God would forgive him for missing mass and that He hadn’t forgotten about Steve. 

 

Feeling slightly better about the whole affair after church, he drove up to the Hukilau Cafe for some breakfast. If he’s correct, Tony would show up at the cafe in attempt to chat him up and get Steve to fall for him again. Steve arrived just as the breakfast crowd was starting to show up. He nodded a greeting at Sue and sat in his booth by the window. Ordering a plate of waffles and some coffee, he settled in to wait for Tony. His journal informed him that he read  _ Caged Bird _ yesterday, and today he brought a different book,  _ Catch-22 _ . He was quickly immersed in the book, only looking up once to thank  the waitress when she came by to drop off his food. 

 

“ _ He knew everything there was to know about literature, except how to enjoy it _ ,” a familiar baritone said, breaking his concentration on the book. When he looked up, Tony was standing before him, wearing a yellow shirt with pineapples and turtles printed on it. His hair was styled artfully, looking disheveled in an attractive way. His brown, doe like eyes glittered in the morning sun. He looked like everything Steve didn’t know he wanted. 

 

“I’m sorry?” 

Tony gestured to his book, “The book you’re reading. That’s what I remembered the most from that book. Other than how hard it is to prove how insane you are.”

 

“Oh. Guess I haven’t gotten to that part, yet.” 

 

“Oops, sorry for spoiling it for you. My bad. I’m Tony, by the way.” Tony introduced himself. He must have thought Steve was still under the impression that today was October 13th. Steve decided to surprise Tony this time around. 

 

“I know. I’ve been waiting for you, Tony. Would you like to have breakfast with me?” Steve motioned to the empty seat in front of him. Tony’s slack jawed expression was priceless. 

 

“Oh. Uh, you...you recognized me? You remembered?” Tony sat down across from him, looking perplexed. 

 

“Yes, Tony. I saw the video this morning. Thank you for making it.” Steve smiled reassuringly. 

 

“That’s good…” Tony concluded, “I guess you’re up to speed with what’s happened these last couple of months.” 

 

“Yes. I saw the video this morning and had a chat with Buck about what has happened around me since the accident. I’m glad I got a head start today, because I want more to spend catching up than wallowing in what has passed.” 

 

“That’s good, Steve. We could do this everyday, if you want. I’ll be there for you.” Tony acknowledged. 

 

“Thanks, Tony. Now what do you say to spending the rest of the day with me? I seem to remember a certain someone promised me a  _ luau _ .” Steve said referring to a passage he read in his journal about Tony promising a  _ luau _ for Steve to invite his friends to if he were up to it. 

 

Tony’s smile was brighter than a thousand arc reactors. 

\----

They decided to have a  _ luau _ at Tony’s private beach. Steve asked Bucky to contact all their friends, at least the ones who were still living in the island. They managed to get ahold of Peggy and Gabe along with Dugan, Jim and Jack Dernier, all of whom played football with Steve back in their undergrad glory days. Tony had ordered a whole roasted pig for the event and had it delivered to the house, and Steve finally got to meet Clint and his three rambunctious kids. The Bartons were just a handful as they seemed in the video he has seen this morning. Tony’s gardener and most recent victim of Steve’s ire, Peter Quill, also showed up with a ukulele, a banana leaf skirt and a headdress. When Tony introduced them, Steve apologized profusely and offered to pay for any medical bills Quill incurred after the event. Quill waved him off, said Tony already more than made up for it. 

 

By the afternoon, they have the luau set up completed and once the guests arrived, they moved to the backyard. Somewhere along the way, Quill started playing his ukulele and Clint put on the banana leaf skirt complete with the headdress and started singing. Steve wasn’t sure what they were singing or why they were singing but they were having a good time, so Steve decided to continue catching up with his friends. 

 

“Peg, I can’t believe you’re pregnant now!” Steve exclaimed. 

 

Peggy serenely put her hand on her distended abdomen, “I know.” she chuckled. Peggy looked amazing as usual with her brown hair longer than Steve remembered it used to be. 

 

“And I got her on the first try.” Gabe boasted to everyone in attendance. 

 

“Yeah. Easy.” Peggy countered, annoyed at her husband. 

 

Steve smiled at their antics. Once upon a time, he had thought he and Peggy would be in this situation. But they were too similar, like two parallel lines on a graph that were destined to never intersect but keep going on their own trajectories. Steve was happy for her for finding happiness with Gabe, he didn’t begrudge them that. Besides with life turning out this way for Steve, adding in a child to the mix would just complicate things. Steve has resigned himself to never have a normal life with the white picket fence, a spouse and 2.5 kids. 

 

How would that work? Steve would wake up every morning next to someone with no memory of how it happened? No, better to just leave impossible imaginings alone. But then,  he thought of Tony. How long would this  _ relationship _ of theirs last? Would Tony be willing to keep doing this every day? Spending his day wooing Steve, making Steve fall in love with him over and over again, knowing that he would have to do it again tomorrow? It was beyond anything anyone would do for Steve but somehow Tony managed to do it, and Steve...well, Steve was a hopeless romantic who couldn’t say no to a grand gesture. Steve decided to enjoy today and Tony’s company. He still had tomorrow to think about other things. 

 

“Here you go, Steve.” Tony sat down next to him, handing a bottle of ice cold Longboard. 

 

“Thank you, Tony.” he smiled over at the man beside him. Steve didn’t know what he’d done in a past life to be able to have a chance to meet, let alone get to know, this amazing man who has supported him day in and day out. 

 

“So you must be Steve’s friend? The one who made the tape?” Dernier asked. 

 

“I think he’s more than my friend,” Steve elaborated, “you’re my boyfriend, right?” he asked Tony. 

 

The look on Tony’s face said it all. He looked so happy and content that Steve just wanted to cuddle him close to his chest and never let him go. “Yes, Sir.” he grinned cheekily. 

 

“So, every day you helped Steve realize what had happened and you wait patiently for him to be okay with it, then you get him to fall in love with you again?” Peggy asked. 

 

“Yes, ma’am.” Tony answered simply. Hearing it put like that, Steve was now even more in awe with the lengths Tony go through just for him. Steve surrendered to the urge to hug Tony and wrapped his arms around the man beside him and pulled him closer to his side. And Tony melted into him. That was the only way to describe how perfect his boyfriend felt in his arms. 

 

Peggy was touched at hearing how much this man cared for Steve. All the trash mags and tabloids portraying Tony Stark as a shallow-hearted, partying playboy, selfish billionaire was full of it. She was glad Steve finally had someone who could love him fearlessly, endlessly and without reservations. All this sweetness made her realize something important, though. 

 

“You arsehole.” she smacked her husband who was standing right next to her, “you never even open the bloody car door for me anymore.” 

 

Their group erupted in laughter, with Dugan’s being the loudest as he jeered on Gabe, “You’re in trouble!” 

\----

Later that night after the party has ended and everyone, but the two of them, had left, Steve and Tony decided they were still too keyed up to get some rest. They decided to explore Tony’s private beach, finding a little cave not too far from the house. Steve was holding a brand new camcorder Tony bought him earlier in the day despite Steve’s protestation. Steve had decided he will make his own video, but this time he would include more interviews with people so as to keep the video as accurate as possible. He would start with interviewing Tony. 

 

“So,” he started, “tell me a little bit more about yourself. The personal stuff, not the stuff I can find in your Wikipedia page.” Steve added cheekily. 

 

Tony scratched the back of his head trying to think of something worthwhile to tell Steve, “Well I’m a dancer. I actually trained as a classical ballerino in the French style when I was a kid. But my ballet teacher was an asshole so I quit midway.” 

 

Steve was definitely not expecting that, though that would explain Tony’s posture and the seeming ease he carried himself with, “Okay, and then what else?” 

 

“I’m banned from at least seven casinos on the Las Vegas strip because I couldn’t help counting cards every time I played blackjack.” Tony answered with a grin. “It’s math, come on! You can’t expect me not to do it!” Steve couldn’t help his laughter. 

 

“I don’t know what else to tell you,” Tony said, “What do you wanna know?” 

 

Steve thought for a minute. What would he like to know about Tony Stark? There was one crucial thing that he needed to know, for posterity’s sake and for his own peace of mind. 

“Do you love me?” 

 

Tony seemed taken aback by the question. His eyes flickered from Steve towards the darkened water, seemingly thinking about what to say to Steve’s sudden question. 

 

“I didn’t mean to put you on the spot,” Steve started to apologize, “I just want to know for informational purposes, to keep this video as up to date as possible.” 

 

Tony remained silent, his gaze was still on the water. He didn’t say anything for awhile until he straightened his back, seeming to come to a resolution. He cleared his throat to say, “Well love is a very loaded word. Uh let’s see. I go to this diner every morning and I see you there reading, and...I love you very much. Probably more than anyone could love another person.” 

 

Steve couldn’t take his eyes away from Tony. Tony’s eyes were one of his best features. Steve could see all the love Tony professed shining at him through those brown orbs. It made him feel humbled, grateful and most of all invincible. Because if Tony loved him, nothing else in this world could hurt him. 

 

“And how do I feel about you?” Steve asked. 

 

“Well I think you’re excited about the ballet thing. And, uh, you’ve been dying to make out with me for some time now.” 

 

Steve turned off the camera and threw it on the sand. He needed both hands to do this. He stepped forward tugged on Tony’s waist to bring them closer together and bent his head towards Tony’s face and brought their lips together in a kiss. Tony reciprocated immediately, opening his mouth for Steve’s exploration and wrapping his arms around Steve’s neck. He felt Tony sighed and melted into the kiss and wondered how long had Tony waited for this. It felt like everything that was perfect in the world. They broke apart after a long moment of just kissing each other to their hearts’ content. 

 

“Feeling better now?” Tony asked. Steve nudged the side of his face with his nose, leaning his forehead on Tony’s. 

 

“Nothing beats a first kiss.” 

\----

From that day forward, their unorthodox, yet perfect, relationship blossomed. Tony would take him to different places on the island for their “first dates” and by the end of each date they would kiss. And Steve would say what he always felt he needed to say, much to Tony’s amusement. 

 

They were at an old lighthouse that long since been put out of commission, and they were making out by the entrance and Steve said,  “There’s nothing like a first kiss.” 

 

They went back to the pineapple plantation, but this time far away from the scene of the accident to pick up a pineapple for Thanksgiving. One thing led to another and Steve said, “Nothing beats a first kiss.” 

 

“That’s what I’ve heard.” Tony quipped back. 

\----

Three months later, they were back at Tony’s mansion. This time they were alone, and after the earlier part of the day spent exploring the island, they went back to the mansion to spend the rest of the day together. Steve had brought his memory videos, his journal, and a change of clothes just in case he were to spend the night at Tony’s. This marked the longest relationship both of them had been on, and under the strangest of circumstances too. 

 

They were in the living room, Tony sprawled out over him on the expansive sectional with Steve beneath him, making out passionately. Just then, Steve felt Tony’s hand moved southward towards the bulge in Steve’s pants. Steve broke the kiss, stopping Tony’s hand on his sojourn southward. 

 

“Mm! What are you doing?” 

 

“Nothing. I’m just getting some lint off your pants.” 

 

Steve knew better and fixed him with an amused look, “You were going for a feelski.” 

 

“Alright, I’m sorry...but it’s like the twenty third time we made out already. And...they’re getting blue.” Tony said jokingly, trying to lighten up the situation. 

 

Steve looked amused by his boyfriend’s sheepish look, “I know, I know.” he chuckled, then backtracked, “I mean, I really don’t know. For me it still feels like the first time.” Steve then sat up, dislodging Tony from his lap but not willing to let the man go further than an arm’s length away from him. 

 

“Okay let’s average it out then.” Tony countered, “it’s the first time for you and the twenty third time for me, so that comes out to twelve for both of us. Now Hawaiian Law clearly states that after the 12th date I’m entitled to unlimited dick access.” 

 

Steve laughed out loud, hugging Tony close and kissing his forehead. “Why couldn’t I have met you the day before the accident?” he wondered aloud. 

 

“Hm, you said that all the time.” 

 

Wanting to lighten up the mood, Tony thought of something. He squeezed Steve’s hand in gentle encouragement and stood up, “You wanna meet a special friend of mine?” 

 

They went down to Tony’s workshop in the basement. After Tony commanded JARVIS to open the door for them, the pair went inside and just as soon as they stepped in, the lights switched on to give Steve full view of Tony’s workshop. It was like he had stepped into the future. Holographs of schematics with blue light filled the open air, Tony’s collection of cars were neatly parked on the far side of the workshop. A desk that Steve guessed was Tony’s work desk, had multiple monitors stacked on it. On the far side of the wall was a flat screen TV attached to the wall, along with a framed painting that Steve was sure was an original Barnett Newman (Steve almost fainted at that), a sofa, coffee table and a white board filled with mathematical equations. Steve also saw that there were other workstations that he wouldn’t be able to identify what they were used for. This was Tony’s world, Steve knew. 

 

Looking over at Tony’s face and seeing how he came alive as soon as the lights were turned on was a humbling sight. Tony could change and mold the world they live in with his intelligence, with the way his brain worked. He was proud of Tony’s accomplishments and was anxious to see what else Tony had in store for the world. 

 

“Tony, this is amazing!” he exclaimed, “it’s like I’ve stepped into the future.” 

Tony blushed and cleared his throat, “Eh, it’s nothing. Just the space where I usually tinker and build stuff in. It’s such mess.” 

 

“Tony, this is literally the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. You’re creating the future in this workshop.” 

 

Tony grinned shyly, pleased at Steve’s reaction to his workshop. “I’m glad you liked it, because you haven’t seen it all.” 

 

A whirring sound came from behind Steve and when he turned around something that looked like an arm of a robot was approaching him. The robot had pinchers as its head and was rotating it cheerfully, reminiscent to the way a puppy would wag its tail, as it approached Steve. The robot had the words “DUM-E” painted on its base in white paint along with the eponymous Stark industries logo. There was no doubt in Steve’s mind that Tony created this robot. 

 

“Steve, I want you to meet DUM-E.” Tony introduced him to the robot in front of him, “Steve, this hopeless bucket of bolts is DUM-E, one of my helper bots.” 

 

Steve placed his hand on one of DUM-E’s pinchers, “Very nice to meet you, DUM-E.” his face brightened with joy and excitement, “Wow, he is so awesome!” 

 

“DUM-E, fortunately for you Steve has lived a very sheltered life so he can still be amazed by a rusty bucket of bolts like you.” 

 

“Oh, hush, don’t listen to him, DUM-E. You know Tony loves you,” Steve countered. 

 

“DUM-E was the very first artificial intelligence I created. Made him when I was seventeen for my Master’s thesis.” Tony told Steve, “his coding has some bugs in it and I always told myself I’d get around to debug it, but…” 

 

“You let him keep those bugs because now they’re a part of him.” Steve finished for him. Tony nodded, Steve was right on the money with that. Fixing the code would feel like erasing DUM-E’s personality. And after more than 20 years, Tony felt like he should leave it well alone. DUM-E was meant to be a learning bot, he studied and learnt from the environmental cues around him, and those cues become part of the algorithm eventually. 

 

“Hey, can I ask him a question?” Steve turned to him. “Go ahead,” Tony nodded in acquiescence. 

 

“DUM-E, do you think Tony and I are ready to take our relationship to the next level?” Tony’s eyes widened in excitement. From behind Steve he started frantically signalling DUM-E to move his pinchers up and down in an approximation of a nod. DUM-E seemed to get what Tony wanted and started nodding. 

“You sure about that?” DUM-E continued to nod. 

 

“And do you think I should take advantage of him and bring him to the bedroom upstairs?” Another frantic nodding signal from Tony. This time DUM-E remained motionless for a couple of seconds, pinchers tilting slightly to the left as he pondered the question. After the longest 10 seconds of Tony’s life, DUM-E finally nodded. 

 

“I saw that hand gesture. And I’m glad you did it.” 

 

“Really?” And Steve pounced on him. He settled his hands on Tony’s sharp hip bones to pull Tony closer to him. Tony moaned into the kiss and as Steve started to walk towards the door, Tony wound his legs around Steve’s hips which Steve supported by holding him up by the backs of his thighs. 

 

“Upstairs. Bedroom’s upstairs.” Tony moaned in between kisses. Steve was walking them both up the stairs, peppering kisses all over Tony’s face. As they approached the bedroom, Steve deepened the kiss all the while carrying Tony with him without breaking sweat. He placed Tony on the bed and started kissing him again passionately. Steve tugged on Tony’s shirt and started to ruck it up and pulled it off his head. Steve pulled back slowly to admire Tony. 

 

There was scarring on Tony’s chest, leftover from when they opened it up for the open heart surgery. Steve gently touched the scarred tissue, feeling grateful that Tony was strong enough to survive the ordeal so Steve was able to meet him. He bent down to Tony’s chest and gently placed kisses on the raised scar tissue. 

 

“Steve…” Tony softly gasped. He wasn’t used to anyone paying attention to the mess of flesh on his chest. But here Steve was, gently kissing it, making Tony felt okay about it all. 

 

“So beautiful, Tony...you’re so beautiful.” Steve lifted up his head and kissed Tony again gently. Then he started to unbuttoned his own shirt and finally, finally letting Tony see a glimpse of the amazing body Steve had underneath it all. To say that it was amazing would be an understatement. Steve’s body looked like it was sculpted out of marble. His chest was a chiseled perfection and his abs was rock hard, Tony could stand to launder a couple a shirts over it. His shoulder to waist ratio was ridiculous, he looked like an upside down dorito. A gorgeous, handsome, and amazingly Tony’s dorito. Tony might have let out a whimper. 

 

Oh, he definitely whimper if the amused quirk of Steve’s eyebrow was anything to go by. Steve looked pleased by the effect he was having with Tony. The little punk was smirking at him, “You should take a picture, Tony. It’ll last longer.” 

 

“Oh believe me, JARVIS is taking pictures every single second we’re in this room. From multiple angles.” 

 

“Tony, oh my God…” Steve blushed, hiding his face on the palm of his hands, “what am I gonna do with you?” 

 

“I can think of a couple of things,” Tony laid back on the bed. “Come here, Steve. If I don’t get to have you now, I’m gonna have a heart attack. You don’t want that, do you?” 

 

“Well if it’s for your heart, I guess I can take one for the team.” 

 

He’s such a little shit. Tony loved him so much. “You little shit.” 

\----

At nightfall, they went back outside. After they made love, Steve had made a simple dinner of roasted chicken and sauteed vegetables for them. They had dinner together, then went outside to the lanai to sit by the pool. During their time together, Tony had ideas swirling in his head. Spying Quill’s ukulele on one of the poolside chairs, he grabbed it and went to across where Steve was sketching. He started strumming the ukulele drawing Steve’s attention to him. Steve’s eyes lit up in surprise. He should have known Tony was multi talented. It’s not enough that he was an engineering and mathematical genius, he was also musically inclined. 

 

“Okay, I just wrote this, so go easy on me.” he told Steve, then started singing. 

 

_ The Hukilau was the place, where I first saw your face _

_ We liked each other right away, but you don’t remember me the very next day _

_ Forgetful Stevie, has got a nice caboosie  _

 

Steve laughed. Tony’s voice was nice and smooth. The lyrics were heartfelt and funny, they were Tony in word form. 

 

_ I used to trick into pulling your bike over so we could chat _

_ But my favorite time was when you beat the shit out of Quill with your fists _

_ Then we drove up to see Dr. Erskine  _

_ And found out why Bucky was still in his emo chick phase _

_ Forgetful Stevie, cracked his like Gary Busey  _

 

Steve nodded and pursed his lips pitifully. 

 

_ But I still love him so, and I’ll never let him go _

_ Even if while I’m singing this song _

_ He’s wishing I was a much better looking guy  _

_ Forgetful Stevie, his lips are so damn juicy. How ‘bout another first kiss?  _

 

And what else could Steve do but kiss him. 

\----

Tony drove him back to his father’s house and they stayed up as late as they could, talking about anything and everything. Tony told him about his plans for SI, beyond the green technology initiatives, his childhood and how lonely it was with absentee parents and only the late Jarvis as company. He told Steve how isolated he felt being light years ahead of his peers and how the few friends he had were either his employees (Pepper, Happy, Natasha) and how he never felt connected to another human being until he met Steve. 

 

In turn, Steve told him about his childhood in Hawaii since Tony told him Steve already told him of his brief childhood years in Brooklyn. He told Tony how hard it was after his Ma died and his Dad emotionally checked out so Steve had to be his father’s keeper for awhile. He confided in Tony that sometimes when his emotions got the better of him, he blamed his father for the accident. But those thoughts was gone as fast as they appeared when he saw how much Dad still blamed himself for it. 

 

And of course, Steve would again lament the fact that he didn’t meet and fall in love with Tony before the accident, and Tony would respond that Steve would be bored with him if he hung out with Tony for more than a day. 

 

Eventually, the events of the day caught up with them. Steve was sprawled out on his bed, Tony cuddled to his chest. 

 

“Don’t fall asleep,” Tony cautioned softly. The fact that he burrowed his face closer to Steve’s neck contradicting his words. 

 

“I’m not sleeping. Just resting my eyes,” Steve answered, lips sleepily pressing a kiss to Tony’s forehead. 

 

“I’m gonna go downstairs then.” 

 

“No, no. Stay, please.” 

 

“‘Kay. Steve?” 

 

“What is it, sweetheart?” 

 

“Will you marry me?” 

Steve’s eyes opened at the question. He looked down at the man in his arms, and knew there was only answer to that question. 

 

“Of course.” 

 

Tony smiled softly at him and rubbed the arm Steve had around him, “Good. Don’t forget about me?” he dropped a kiss on Steve’s chest.

“Never.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they lived happily ever after. 
> 
> Hahaha. Just kidding...


	9. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know someday you'll have a beautiful life. I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky. But why can't it be mine?

Steve woke up with the dawn as usual. His biological clock has long been trained to start with the sun after years of waking up at the crack of dawn for football practices. That day he woke up as usual, cocooned under soft warm blankets. In the cloudy haze of his mind, he registered the presence of another person in his bed. Whoever it was, they were warm to the touch and Steve felt a profound sense of contentment and warmth deep within him. He could stand to wake up to this feeling everyday, he thought as he drifted back to sleep. Deciding to chase after that feeling, Steve moved closer to the other person until he could feel the soft bristles of their hair brushed against his cheek as they finally shared one pillow. Steve decided to sleep in for today, it was Saturday after all.  

 ----

 

Steve woke up a few hours later. That Hawaiian sun was shining brightly by now, and though Steve couldn’t say what time it was, it was most likely later than his usual schedule. He would have to wake up soon if he still wanted to get in some morning run before he went out for breakfast to have enough time to go pineapple picking this afternoon up North.

 

“Good morning,” a soft voice pierced through his morning haze.

 

Steve felt a smile gracing his face. Then an arm rubbed up and down his biceps in a comforting manner. Thinking he was still dreaming, he decided to open his eyes so as not to fall back asleep.

 

...only to see a strange man, who was apparently the one who greeted him, sleeping in his bed with him. Steve had no idea who he was, how he got here and what he was doing in his bed. So Steve did the only thing he could think of: Steve screamed bloody murder and jumped out of the bed.

 

At the sound of Steve’s scream, the man started screaming too and jumped out of the bed. Noticing he was buck naked under the covers, the man grabbed the comforter on the bed to cover himself up.

 

“Help! Help!” Steve shouted hysterically, rushing towards the other side of the room where he kept his art supplies.   

 

“Steve! Steve! Steve!” the man started shouting, “Okay, I know this is hard for you to understand right now,” he held his hand out imploring Steve to calm down, “but we’ve actually been seeing each other. We’ve been seeing each other for awhile now.”

 

“What?! I’ve never seen you before in my life! You’re lying!” Steve shouted back, hurling his bucket of paint brushes at the man.  

“Steve! Steve! Steve!” the man ducked to avoid being hit by the paint brush projectiles, “If I wasn’t telling the truth, then how would I know that you’re an art teacher, and you go to the Hukilau Cafe every Saturday and you make waffle houses, and-and-and you like Stargazer lilies.” he continued, talking as fast as he could while Steve looked around for something to incapacitate the man.

 

“Stalker!”

 

“No! Don’t you remember me even a little?” the man implored him.

 

Steve wasn’t gonna take any chances, he assumed a tackling position, then as fast as lightning he jumped and tackled the man on the ground. By the time Dad and Bucky barged into the room from hearing all the ruckus Steve caused, Steve was getting up from the floor where he tackled the man on to, the man unconscious.

 

Steve panted, chest heaving trying to catch his breath. “Happy birthday, Dad.”

 

Joe and Bucky could only stare in horrified silence at the sight of an unconscious man on Steve’s bedroom floor.

 

Later, they took the unconscious body of the man downstairs and told Steve to watch the ‘Good Morning Steve” video and read his journal while they called Dr. Erskine to check on him.

 

“Well, I may not be able to kick your ass, but Stevie sure can.” Bucky remarked, carrying a bag of Ziploc filled with ice cubes to the living room where Tony was lying on the couch.

 

“Thanks, buddy,” Tony muttered faintly. His entire being hurt from being body slammed by Steve. Goddamn, it felt like a refrigerator fell on top of him.

 

“Well, Steve’s alright, though a little shook up. He’s still watching the tape as we speak.” Dr Erskine announced as he made his way to the living room where the family gathered.

 

“How’s my head looking, Doc?” Tony asked, “Am I gonna have any short term memory problems?” The doctor peered closely at Tony’s face. He took out a penlight and told Tony to follow its movement with his eyes.

 

“There doesn’t seem to be any problems with your reflexes. I surmised other than some light bruising to your person that can be resolved with ibuprofen, the damage to your pride was greater, yes?”

 

“Always know what to say to cheer a man up, don’t you doc? Isn’t bedside manners still required to be a good doctor?”

 

“I’m German. We skipped bedside mannerisms in Medical school.” Tony quirked his lips in a small smile at the doctor’s attempt of humor.

 

“So Tony, the boys told me that you’re planning to build a second arc reactor on the other islands once the one here is completed?” the doctor asked Tony, interested in finding out more about the progress of Stark Industries’ green energy initiative.

 

“That’s the long term plan. The plan right now is to increase efficiency of the reactor from 5 year to 10 years, then it will be cost efficient. Hopefully more cost efficient for Hawaii compared to regular solar panel and fossil fuel powered energy source. The problem is with the current design the reactor core keeps melting because the neutron casing heats up after a couple years.” Tony explained, this efficiency problem he had has been the biggest stumbling block in the reactor’s application. If only Tony could solve this problem, his Bohemian Rhapsody, so to speak, would be complete. And maybe finally get that Nobel prize that he so deserved.

 

“So change the design then.” Bucky interjected from his position on the loveseat across Tony.

 

“Working on that, Barnes. The problem isn’t just the hardware, it’s also the chemical reaction produced by the core that caused the heat exchanges melting the casing. I’m trying to find elemental substitute to the Palladium core we’ve been using. Tried every combination and every permutation of all the elements on the Periodic Table and nothing works so far.” Tony finished. His mind wandered, maybe the key wasn’t nuclear fission of radioactive element. Tony had been thinking of playing around with the possibility of mimicking nuclear fusion in the reactor. Would he get better efficiency harvesting the energy produced by slamming two elemental nuclei at really really high speed? Tony’s thinking maybe at speed approximating the speed of light  Hmm, finally a hypothesis worth testing.

 

“Well, I don’t know nothing about what you just said, but it sounds complicated.” Barnes said, he was now doing mobility exercises on his artificial limb in the corner of the room. “Did you tell Steve that you might be moving to a different island yet?”  

 

“Need to hit the books again,” Tony muttered, “Actually, there’s nothing to tell because I decided not to go. I mean, Steve needs me here. I’m just worried about going away for a year and ruining all the progress he’s made. I know you think I’m crazy, but I think deep down inside he’s starting to remember who I am.”

 

Joe and Bucky looked pityingly at Tony as he talked. This was what Tony believed, it’s what he wanted to believe because the alternative was too painful to think about. Tony couldn’t think about how day after day he implored Steve to fall in love with him, for Steve to feel the same way and it was all for naught. He’d like to believe that somewhere deep inside him Steve remembered Tony, remembered all the feelings Tony elicited in him and returned all his affections and undying devotions. Thinking about the possibility that Steve might be humoring him would tore him apart.

“No, Tony. That’s what you want to believe. It’s what we all want to believe,” Dr. Erskine gestured to himself, Joe and Bucky, “but it’s never gonna happen.”

 

Tony smiled sadly at Dr. Erskine, willing the older man to not see the heartbreak that he’s sure his eyes was projecting for all the world to see. “Okay. I got to go to work. Bye, guys. Will you tell Steve I’ll come by later in the afternoon for him? See you guys.” then Tony stood up, put the coffee mug he’d been drinking from on the coffee table and left the Rogers’ family home.

 

“I tell you, that kid could have gone to the moon and back and Steve would never even know he left.” Joe remarked once Tony was out of their sights.

\----

Unbeknownst to them, Steve was listening to their conversation from his perch on top of the stairs. He had been going down after finishing the video and reading his journal intending to apologize to Tony, who was telling the truth when he said they were seeing each other. Seeing the video and reading about all the things he and Tony have done together were very touching and Steve thought he owe Tony an apology for the way he treated his boyfriend after a night spent together.  

 

Just as he was heading downstairs though, he heard Dr. Erskine asked Tony about his plans with the arc reactors he’s planning to build in Hawaii. Steve knew about Stark Industries’ clean and sustainable energy initiative, he read about it after Tony announced the shut down of the weapons manufacturing division of SI. What he didn’t know was that Tony had basically sidelined the whole project because his whole day was now preoccupied with making Steve fall in love with him. Unknowingly, Steve had ruined his life. Steve had stifled his potential, his ability to change the world, his power to create and change people’s lives for the better because of his condition. He had selfishly kept this amazing and incredible person away from having his most fulfilled life because of his condition.

 

Steve leaned his head forlornly at the banister. He thought of his Dad and Bucky’s life. They sacrificed so much of their free time and their lives just to help Steve navigate his way through his memory impairment. He has become a burden on his father and his brother, and he’s not going to be a burden and ruin Tony’s life. Not on his watch. Steve knew this status quo couldn’t continue. The four of them couldn’t keep pretending like Steve was normal and that watching a video in the morning would fix everything. Steve knew what he needed to do, and it was something he should have done a long time ago.

 

\----

 

After skulking back home to lick his wounds in private, Tony took a few moments to compose himself. This morning’s setback with Steve was understandable. Of course Steve would freak out after waking up to a strange man in his bed. Even after he promised last night that he’d never forget about Tony. And that he would marry Tony. Whatever, it’s just a little setback and they’ve only wasted a day. And in hindsight, Tony would now have more time to make Steve’s engagement ring. After eating a bagel for breakfast, he went downstairs to start forging Steve’s ring. He could estimate Steve’s ring size after days spent holding hands with the man (shut up, it’s totally normal and not creepy). So he fired up the forge and using the palladium he had bought for this particular purpose, started to get to work on the most amazing engagement ring ever created. Tony knew Steve was not prone to extravagance. The man lived simply, and on the occasions where Tony tried to buy stuff for him and shower him with gifts and riches unparalleled, Steve seemed to balk at the idea of receiving them and told Tony to spend his money on someone who needed them more than Steve did. So Steve was they type that appreciate the thought behind a present rather than how big, or expensive or how pretty it was. So that’s what Tony was trying to show with this engagement ring, that he appreciate Steve and that he would go the extra mile to design and create their own rings, since he also planned on making their own wedding rings rather than buy them.

 

By mid morning the ring was forged, cooled and ready for Tony to engrave it. A smooth, shiny silver band that felt solid and sturdy enough for Steve’s big hands. Tony engraved the insides with their initials and the date of the day they first met. Satisfied with his handiwork, he told JARVIS to put in an order for a ring box to store the ring in while in the meantime Tony would keep in one of the drawers by his work desk.

 

Next, he turned his attention to the arc reactor project. Truthfully it’s been awhile since he was able to buckled down and really work on a solution for the melting core problems. His brief conversation with Bucky this morning sparked an Einstein a-ha moment that he now would like to test. With JARVIS’ help, he set out to create a simulation using the holographics deck of the current input, projected outputs and the efficiency of the current palladium core of the existing arc reactors. As always, when he fast forward the simulation, the same problem emerged with the depleted core and melted neutrino casing.

 

“Okay, J, try this one for a change. Let’s change up the reactor a little bit. Use this new scheme I’m specifying to you: change the palladium core to helium and hydrogen atoms, and use these modified Lawson equations and the numbers I gave you as the input.”

 

“Sir, are you attempting to create thermonuclear fission in the arc reactor?”

 

“Got it in one, J.”

 

“Controlled thermonuclear fission aren’t feasible because the fulfilments of the Lawson criteria remain unachievable on Earth.”

 

“Well, let’s try and be the first to satisfy it. Indulge me, will you JARVIS?”

 

“Very well, Sir.”

 

When JARVIS ran the simulation again, the energy output of the reactor simulation was higher than his existing prototypes. What was surprising was as Tony run through the time-course of the reactor simulation while there were still neutron damage and loss of hydrogen mass from the fission reaction, this new scenario lasted longer than five years. And most importantly Tony didn’t blew up the planet by generating an accidental hydrogen bomb. Tony smiled, eyes glittering with pride and the euphoria of discovery. Eureka!

 

“Congratulations, Sir. You have achieved the first recorded controlled thermonuclear fission in modern history.”

 

Tony laughed and clapped his hands together. “Call Stockholm, J. I want my Nobel prize posthaste. And I’m not sharing it with anyone.”

 

Tony took a moment to revel in the high that he always got after his hypothesis was proven correct. He did it! Not only did he manage to improve the arc reactor design, he also finally solved one of mankind’s greatest problem: energy scarcity. Nothing was gonna bring him down today.

 

“Tony?” a deep, smooth baritone pulled him out of his reverie. When he looked up through the glass walls of his workshop, he saw Steve standing outside the door by the stairs, his hand raised in a wave. JARVIS must have put him on speaker.

 

“Hey,” Tony greeted, standing up and walking towards the door, signalling JARVIS to unlock the door, “What brings your royal handsomeness here?”

 

Steve quirked his lips slightly at the compliment as if just discovering that Tony was just as amusing as he’d seemed in the video. He stepped inside the workshop and looked around. Right, Tony thought, he was seeing it for the first time again. “Wow, Tony. These all look amazing. These holographs are so neat!”

 

Tony shrugged, though inside he was happy at seeing Steve’s excitement for his work. No one had ever showed as much enthusiasm for his work as Steve did. Rhodey got excited when he would show him new weapons design or specs, but that was probably to do with his job as DoD liaison for Stark Industries. Pepper didn’t really care for the technical details and the codes and algorithms he would write for SI products and the bots didn’t really have expressions to convey their excitement. But Tony had been taking their chirps and whirrings as signs of excitement and happiness whenever he finished an upgrade or a project. So to see someone clearly very excited just by seeing what he had done was not an unwanted boost of confidence.

 

“What were you doing?” Steve asked, he was walking around the holographic arc reactor that JARVIS was still displaying.

 

“Trying to solve how to overcome the energy barrier needed to fuse two atoms together. If I can do it, then the arc reactor technology is basically complete.” Steve’s awestruck and amazed face would always be one of Tony’s expression he saw on Steve’s face. Other than his orgasm face of course. Steve looked so beautiful when he finally reaches completion.

Steve cleared his throat, and looked back to Tony tearing his gaze away from the blue lights of the holograph, “So how’s your head?”

 

“It’s fine. Doc said no lasting damage.”

 

“Good, that’s good.” Steve said, relieved that he hasn’t done anything too damaging Tony’s person.

 

“What brings you here? I told your Dad and Barnes that I’ll be back in the afternoon to pick you up so we can hang out.” Steve smiled and tilted his head, acknowledging Tony’s words. “I needed to see you,” he started. Steve was nervous, he started fiddling the journal he brought with him.

“What do you have there?” Tony asked, motioning to the bound book in Steve’s grasp.

 

“It’s my journal. I write in it every night.” Steve flipped through the pages, showing Tony his neat handwriting and the pictures he put in the journal as well as some doodles that Tony knew Steve drew himself.

 

“Oh,” Tony deflated, “is there something wrong with the video? Do you not like it?”  

 

“Oh no, the video is wonderful. I love it.” Steve clarified, not wanting Tony to feel offended.  “It’s just that sometimes when I watched the video I feel like I’m being told about my life by someone else. But reading my journal...it feels like I’m telling myself the story.”

 

“When did you start this up?”

 

“Right after you gave me the video.”

 

“Really?”

 

“I wanted to come meet the guy that makes me fall in love with him every day. And I’m nervous.”

 

“Well, you probably thought I couldn’t live up to the hype. But joke’s on you, it’s the hype that couldn’t live up to me.” Tony joked.

 

Steve chuckled nervously, his eyes flickered around the room as he took a deep breath to say what he needed to say next, “No, I’m nervous because...because I’ve come here to break up with you.”

 

And just like that, Tony’s heart stopped.

 

“You had plans, and a life before you meet me.” Steve continued, unaware that he was breaking Tony’s heart as he spoke, “and now all you have time for is to make me fall in love with you every day.”

 

“That’s not true,” Tony stammered, “That’s not all I do. I just solved the world’s biggest energy conundrum this morning. And made at least 10 grand, just standing here having a conversation with you.”

 

“Tony, I look at my dad and my brother’s lives and I won’t do that to you.”

 

“What do you want me to do?” Tony’s aware his tone has turned hostile by now. But it’s the last thing on his mind now. Steve’s breaking up with him! “Be some stupid chapter in your scrapbook and go on my merry way?!”

 

“No. My plan is to erase you completely, so it’s as if we never met and you don’t exist.”

 

If Tony’s heart didn’t stop before, then it certainly was now.

 

“Why are you doing this?” Tony walked away from Steve, he couldn’t believe his day was taking such a drastic turn after that amazing scientific breakthrough and a surprise visit from Steve.

 

“Because you have to understand that there is no future with me!” Steve shouted at Tony’s retreating back. “Don’t you wanna have a family, marriage and children?”

 

“I asked you to marry me last night, and you said yes.”

 

“But how is that going to work? I didn’t even remember you asking in the first place, Tony. What’s gonna happen down the line? I’m gonna wake up every morning with a ring on my finger and no memory of what happened?”

 

At the mention of a ring, Tony’s heart jolted painfully. What would Steve do or say if he knew that Tony already have such a ring completed and ready for him? Would Steve just threw it back at his face, breaking his heart and ruining their chance for happiness together, like what he’s doing now?

 

“I have to make a new journal that doesn’t have you in it. But before I do, I would really like for you to read what I wrote about you.” Steve continued.

 

“I will read about it tomorrow, after you forget about all this breaking up stuff,okay?”  

 

Steve shook his head, “I’m not gonna forget about it. I already wrote it down, I won’t let myself. And I’m gonna do it whether you want me to or not. Please respect my decision, Tony. I’ll be at my house. I’ll see you tonight.” and with that, he turned taking all the joy in Tony’s life with him. Tony absentmindedly thought about that ring he hid in the drawers of his work desk and had another thought to remind JARVIS to cancel the ring box order. Steve didn’t want it anyway.

 

\----

 

That night, Tony came to Steve’s house armed with an SI laptop that has the most advanced dictation software in the market. If he has to read Steve’s break up journal and erase whatever parts that have him in it, he wasn’t going to debase himself by preserving other parts that didn’t have him in it. They settled in Steve’s room, on the study desk. Steve read out loud the parts that he wanted to record and rip out part of the journal that had Tony or mentioned Tony.

 

Steve flipped through some pages in the journal at an alarmingly fast paced, “We can skip that part,” he shrugged.

 

“What? No, no, no. let me read it,” Tony reached out and flatten the pages so he could read it. “‘We made love tonight. Though it was our first time, it was incredible. I never felt such a connection with another human being before in my life. We need to do this more often!!!’” Tony recited. By the time Tony was finished reciting what Steve wrote, Steve was blushing.

“Sure, you don’t wanna put that in?”  

 

Steve nodded his head in affirmation, then ripped out the page Tony had been reading and threw it in the trash.

 

They continued dictating until they reached the end of the journal. Once done, they printed the whole thing with a cover adorned with big block letters that read “READ ME”. the remains of the journal were then burned outside in a fire proof wastebasket.  

 

They stood on opposite sides of the shed where they burned the journal entries. The Hawaiian weather was, for once, indicative of their state of minds as it has been raining buckets the entire afternoon. How apt, Tony thought. Nature was mourning the sad state of my life with me.

 

“Well, that’s that.” Tony said, staring at the slowly burning fire eating away at his presence in Steve’s life. It’s cruel of Steve, Tony thought. It’s cruel how easy it was for Steve to erase any trace of Tony’s existence from his life, while Tony wouldn’t be able erase even the scent of Steve from his nostrils. Steve would wake up tomorrow and everything would be fine in his life, but Tony would have to go on living like there was no Steve-shaped gaping hole on his person.

 

“See you around.” Tony turned to leave. He was halfway to his car when Steve called out to him.

 

“Tony! Can I have one last first kiss?”

 

And Tony’s not strong enough to deny Steve anything. They kissed in the rain. In the back of his mind, Tony thought this was the cliche romantic set up Hollywood always advertised. Kissing the love of your life in the rain. But all Tony could think about was how the rain disguised his tears, if Steve felt any wetness coming from his eyes, he wouldn’t know if it was the tears Tony cried from having his heart ripped in two. Steve deepened the kiss and wound his arms around Tony’s waist and Tony just wanted the moment to last forever but he knew it couldn’t. So he wrenched himself away from Steve’s embrace and ran to his car, leaving his life and entire being flayed open out there on the wet earth.

 

Before he drove away Tony spared a look at Steve’s face as he stood there in the torrential downpour. Steve looked devastated, and if Tony look at his own face in the mirror, he would see the same expression staring back at him. Whatever, Steve would forget about this come morning anyway. Tony’s the one who’ll be getting firsthand experience on how to live without his soul.

 

Love stinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me.


	10. Pictures of You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've been looking so long at these pictures of you, that I almost believe that they're real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alas I have succumbed to the flu, friends. The epilogue is gonna be a little delayed. Sorry...
> 
> Enjoy this chapter! Hope it makes up for the heartbreak from the last one :D

Tony had to begrudgingly admit that Steve was right when he said Tony didn’t have time to do anything else but make Steve fall in love with him every single day. After they broke up he realized how much free time he had, now that he didn’t have to go to the Hukilau for breakfast and spend all day and night with Steve trying to win his love’s heart before the day came to a close. Now he had time to work on upgrades Pepper requested for SI gadgets, he managed to review and revise projects coming out of R&D and actually earning his paycheck as CTO. Post breakup, Tony spent 80% of his time in the workshop, only able to be coaxed out of his workshop on the occasion when the Barton spawns visit the mansion to swim or play on the beach.

Natasha tried to get him outside, by which he meant she forcibly dragged him to one of his cars, threw him in the passenger seat, made him eat lunch that he ended up only picking through and made him help her pick new clothes with her at Ala Moana one day. She took advantage of Tony’s addled state of mind and picked his wallet, purchasing what amounted to be most of the available items at Prada, Louis Vuitton and La Perla. Tony silently signed the bills and allowed Natasha to drag him to the Honolulu Cookie Company stand before buying out the cart, much to the consternation of the tourists around him. Whatever, they can go to another Honolulu Cookie Company counter, okay? It’s not like there’s only one on the Island. Tony’s heartbroken, they can go to another location and leave him to eat his pineapple cookies in peace.They end the day getting some Strawberry shaved ice which made Tony feel marginally better about the whole situation.

Clint and Quill also did their part in coaxing Tony out of his heartbreak blues. Clint tried pimping him out to tourists again, but this time anytime Clint gave him a slip of paper with their number on it Tony gave it to U, who enthusiastically torched it (U’s having a bit of a pyromania phase right now, Tony should probably look into it). Since pimping Tony out didn’t work, they took him to a club in Waikiki and rented a private booth. They kept pointing out attractive guys and girls to him and inviting them to sit with them in the private booth.

Clint and Quill managed to get some tourist into the booth with them. Tony thought the guy was good looking enough. He had that nice smile that he must have spent a good amount of money on, and blond hair that Tony couldn’t help compare to Steve’s. He started to remember that sometimes Steve’s hair would turn a darker shade, almost brown, if his hair was wet. Like it did when it was soaked with rain that night when they broke up three months ago.

Just as he was starting to shook his thoughts off Steve to actually started paying attention to what Blond guy said, a song came blaring through the sound system of the club. It was a shitty Club remix version of Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark. And Tony, well Tony promptly burst into tears.

As Tony sobbed, Clint awkwardly patted his back in a poor attempt to console his friend. Quill was making up some excuse to their guest. “Sorry, sorry. Our friend’s not feeling well. His, uh, dog just died…”   
Tony sobbed harder, moaning and crying. He distantly register the man standing up and leaving their booth. Quill then turned to him in bewilderment, “Dude, what the hell? What’s going on?”

“This song…” Tony sobbed, hiccuping once, “This one time this song came on the radio, and Steve started dancing…” he cried louder, “It was so bad...he looked like squiggly worm on a fishing hook.”

Clint and Quill exchanged alarmed looks on their faces. Tony was more out of it than they thought.

“God, he loved this song so much. His taste in music was so bad…” Tony reminisced, “so blue-collar…”

The song continued to play. The chorus was blaring from the soundsystem. You can’t start a fire, you can’t start a fire without a spark.

“I can’t do this. I’m sorry, guys. I have to go…” Tony scrambled to sit up and left the booth. Throwing a couple of bills on the table enough to cover the tips and if Clint and Quill decided to stay longer. As he left, he managed to caught a snatch of the song’s last verse.

_You can't start a fire sitting 'round crying over a broken heart_   
_You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart_   
_This gun's for hire, even if we're just dancing in the dark_

Maybe it was time to start a fire of his own.

\----

Pepper decided to come visit him a couple of weeks later. She said she was there on SI business, but the bikini, sundresses and wide rimmed fancy hats she packed told a different story. Pepper went to the SI offices in Honolulu for three days and spent the remainder of her two weeks stay at Tony’s mansion, dragging him all over the island. Rhodey arrived a couple of days after her and Tony was so happy to see him, he glommed onto Rhodey, and didn’t let go of his best friend for five minutes straight.

Then they proceeded to get shitfaced in the workshop, under JARVIS’ supervision to prevent any unfortunate incidents that could occur.

“So, lemme get this straight,” Rhodey took a swig of his Johnny Walker, “Dude doesn’t remember what happened past a certain day, and everyday you have to get him to fall in love with you again?”

Tony nodded forlornly, “Yeah. I’d spend the whole day with him and by the end of it we’d be together again.”

“And that doesn’t seem strange to you?”

Tony blinked owlishly. What did Rhodey mean?

“Personally speaking, I ain’t ever gonna fall for someone that I just met in one day. But he did, Tony. And he fell every day you went to him. What does that tell you?”

“That he...liked me a little. At least he liked the outer packaging,” Tony gestured to himself.

“No, Tones. It’s more than that. I think deep down inside, way way down inside he remembers you,” Rhodey pointed to him, “You. That’s why it’s so easy to fall in love you every single day.”

“His doctors said that’s not the case.” Tony shook his head, “That’s just what we want to believe.”

“And how much do we really know about how the human brain works, huh?” Rhodey interjected, “you can’t tell me that all the possible ways the brain works have been studied and discovered. The brain works in mysterious ways, Tony.” Tony was silent for a while. What Rhodey was saying did cross his mind one time, but Dr. Erskine completely shot that theory down before it could be tested and dashing all of Tony’s hopes in having Steve remember him, however fleeting it was.

“Why couldn’t I have met him one day before his accident?” Tony lamented wistfully. He took a long gulp of his own drink.

Rhodey, being Rhodey, knew exactly what to say to bring a smile to Tony’s face, “Nah. Then he’d just realize what a bore you are.”

“You know me too well, platypus.”

So Tony went along on all their jaunts all over the island. He took them to the North Shore to see the macadamia farms and the pineapple plantation. Then they went island hopping, taking the jet from the Big Island, Maui, Molokai and all the way to Kauai. That island hopping trip was one part vacation, one part business trip as he and Pepper looked around for future sites for the arc reactor plants SI planned to build in Hawaii.

On one of their last days in Hawaii, Pepper and Rhodey declared they wanted to go to the beach, a real beach with other people around them, as opposed to the private beach that Tony has in his backyard. It was all kinds of ridiculous, wanting to go to a beach that was riddled with tourists and fight over a spot on the sand, but Tony indulge them since they have been kind enough to come all the way to Hawaii and accompany him through the first and hopefully only heartbreak he ever experienced. So they went to Waikiki Beach, to a place on the beach Tony thought has less tourist traffic compared to the other parts. Pepper went for a swim, while Rhodey tried his hand at surfing. He wasn’t very good at staying on the board and ended up just paddling around on the board, while Tony declined to go anywhere near the water with his shirt on.

Ever since his open heart surgery, he had some reservations about being bare chested in front of strangers. The scars left on his body weren’t for the faint of heart. Even during his pre-Steve one-night stands he never took of his shirt with them, leaving on the tank top he usually wore under his dress shirts. So he was lounging around under a huge beach umbrella sipping a pina colada, wearing a linen shirt and a pair of Ray Bans. After two weeks spent with his oldest and best friends, Tony felt himself starting to get over his heartbreak. Steve was the first, and probably only, man he ever fell in love with. It was understandable for him to feel the after effects of a terminated relationship as intensely as he did. Maybe in time he would be able to look at those six months they spent together and remembered only the good stuff, the feelings Steve elicited from him, how Steve made Tony feel loved and cherished and treasured for the first time in his long and arduous life. And though Steve might not remember it, Tony hoped he managed to convey all of his love to Steve and that he would remember the phantom feelings of having someone love as completely and devotedly as Tony once had.

A flash of light at his eye interrupted him from his musings. It was annoying, and Tony looked up trying to find the asshole who almost blind him by shining the sun directly in his eye. He turned, ready to give the asshole a piece of his mind, only to stop and and drop his pina colada on the sand.

It was Steve. Steve was sitting a couple of feet away from him, his watch reflecting the rays of the sun towards the general area where Tony was sitting. If Tony thought he was ready to get over Steve, this just nuked any hope he ever had of getting over him. He was sitting on a towel on the sand, bare chested and wearing blue board shorts. A surf board was planted into the sand next to him, and from the way his hair was a couple of shades darker than it usually was Tony has managed to catch him post-surf. He had a sketchbook open on his on his lap, a mechanical pencil was held in his fingers, dancing across the smooth surface of the paper, drawing from memory or the scenery Tony didn’t know. He was so beautiful, Tony’s heart ached to go to him and hug him, tell Steve how much he missed him, how much Tony loves him and how these past couple of weeks completely destroyed him.

Just then, as if noticing something in his periphery Steve looked up from his sketchbook towards the ocean, then turned his head in Tony’s direction, his eyes landing on Tony. He gave Tony a small smile, one that Tony was powerless not to reciprocate, then turned his attention back to the sketchbook in his hold. A small smile that Steve reserved for strangers, that was all Tony deserved. That was that, Tony thought, that’s all I am. A stranger.

My plan is to erase you completely...as if you never existed.

Mission accomplished, Steve.

  
\----

 

After Pepper and Rhodey left to go back to the mainland, Tony decided he needed to buckle down and get out of this funk he’s been wallowing in. He decided to come back to the his previous efforts in revamping the arc reactor technologies. He wasn’t ready to tell anyone his hypothesis, at least not until he has proof-of-concept for his newest idea. Because running simulation with JARVIS is one thing, but actually proving the concept works in the real world is another thing.

“J, what would be the best way to break the Coulomb barrier necessary to fuse two nuclei together?” Tony asked, booting up the workshop. JARVIS helpfully display their latest simulation, showing a Helium nuclei in the process of fusing with a hydrogen nuclei.

“Accelerating the nuclei at high speed seem to be the conventional wisdom in the field, Sir.”

“Hmm,” Tony stood up, “give me an estimate on speed, radius, and iterations needed to achieve break through the energy barrier.”

JARVIS took a couple minutes to perform all the necessary calculation. When he finished, the displayed results floated in front of Tony, lines of mathematical equations that are as familiar to Tony as every breath he took.

“Estimations of error rate?”

"Current estimate is 0.01%, Sir.”

“Awesome. Only 1 in 100 chance of creating a Supernova on earth. I like my odds.” Tony grinned, walking towards the helper bots.

“I laugh in the face of danger, Sir.”

Tony grinned. Sometimes he thought JARVIS was all the company he needed in life.

“Get ready for a major remodel, fellas. We’re in hardware mode!”

A week later, Tony had a working prototype of a particle accelerator in his house. The Kahala mansion was just a shell of a house by now. Metal coils protrude from walls, spiraling from Tony’s basement, upwards towards the ground floor and the second floor. Based on his calculations, it would be sufficient to accelerate one hydrogen particle and one helium particle. The modifications he included within the accelerator should be sufficient to prevent an uncontrolled chain reaction and allowing for exothermic energy to be harvested for power source. This miniaturized particle accelerator would be sufficient to perform proof-of-concept experiment to be scaled up later on.

“We ready, J?” Tony asked. His heartbeat was racing. This is it: the moment of truth.

“Levels are steady and holding stable, Sir.”

“Okay, guys. This is it.” Tony addressed the helper bots, “if this doesn’t work, it’s been an honor,” he saluted the bots. DUM-E chirped back, while U and Butterfingers nodded their handles. Tony then turned the ignition that started the power coils, initiating the particle accelerator. Machine sounds started to fill the workshop and the house. The power coils groaned as the particles within started to accelerate.

“Initiating nuclear acceleration.” JARVIS informed them.

A couple of minutes passed before JARVIS once more announced, “Approaching Coulomb barrier energy.” Tony held his breath, he didn’t realize he was holding it until JARVIS informed him once again that, “The Coulomb barriers have been surpassed.”

At this point, the two particles should be at sufficient speed to fall into each other and fuse into one. “Initiate nuclear fusion, J.”

“Nuclear fusion initiated.”

A couple of tense minute where only the sounds of the particle accelerator filling the air. Tony was almost scared of what JARVIS would say next.

“Controlled self sustaining nuclear fusion chain reaction has been achieved, Sir. Congratulations.”

“YES!!” Tony cheered. From the peanut gallery, the bots were chirping and whirring in excitement taking his cue.

“What did I tell you, huh? Am I a genius or what!” Tony laughed. He felt invincible, undefeated. He did it! He solved the sustainability problem of the arc reactor and he managed to achieve the first ever self sustaining controlled nuclear fusion reaction in the world. His life’s work was complete. Illuminated by the blue lights of the workshop and the particle accelerator, he smiled.

 

\----

 

Steve finished adding finishing touches on the mural of the New York City skyline he painted in his Dad’s garage. He stepped back to gaze upon his artwork. It took him six months to complete this mural, not because he was uninspired or have no time. He just kept forgetting that he was supposed to be painting it. At least it didn’t took him four years to complete this painting, like that Lithuanian psychiatrist whose the namesake of Steve’s condition. He was glad to finally complete this piece. He meant it as a farewell gift to his father and Bucky. Steve had decided that he would move out the house and live at the Institute for Traumatic Brain Injury instead. It was high time he did this.

He has been a burden to his dad and Bucky for long enough. It wasn’t fair on them. He wouldn’t impose on them any longer. With Steve gone, Bucky would be free to focus on his recuperation, he’d be free to go to the VA for his counseling sessions, and Dad would have more time to dedicate to fixing up the old beat up Mercury he had been meaning to do once he retired. Hell, his dad can retire now, and he won’t have to spend his days holding Steve’s hand, catering to him. His Dad would even be free to start dating again, if he wanted. God knew he needed some company now that Steve would be leaving. He decided he would bring it up tonight, during dinner time. He knew his dad and brother wouldn’t exactly be thrilled by it, but they would respect his decision. Steve needed to stand up on his own two feet and start being a functioning member of society again. He needed to be useful and do what’s right for his family and himself. He needed to start to live again.

“What do you mean you’re moving out?!” Bucky shouted, unsure of what Steve was saying.

“I’m moving out, Buck. I’m gonna live at the Institute. I already arranged it with Dr. Erskine.” Steve calmly took another bite of his roast beef. It was his turn to cook tonight, and to placate his dad and Bucky he decided to make something that everyone liked.

“Steve, you don’t have to do this.” Dad implored him, “we’re more than capable of helping you. And none of that stuff about being a burden to me and Bucky.”

Bucky furiously nodded, “Yeah, Stevie. Ain’t nothing burdening us about you. We’re more than ready to help you.”

“What about ten years from now, Buck? Twenty? Don’t you wanna have a life that doesn’t revolve around taking care of me? I’m not gonna do that to you and Dad, Buck. You deserve to live a full life. And I deserve to decide what I want to do with mine.”

They were silent for awhile. Steve knew Bucky still wanted to argue with him about his decisions, but Joe silenced him.

“When do you need to be there, son?”

And that was that. Steve started living at the institute full time, teaching art to the other patients as a means to help them with their therapy. And if he spend a lot of time in the studio drawing, sketching, painting and sculpting the same subject again and again and again until his studio became a shrine devoted to that subject, it was nobody’s business but his.

 

\----

 

Tony decided to go back to the mainland to kickstart the new nuclear fusion reactor technology. It would be too hard for him to teleconference with his scientists and engineers all day. Plus, many nuances in the experiments weren’t easy to write down in a protocol and could get lost in translation. So direct supervision was the only way. He wasn’t even going to be gone forever, just for a couple of months. But from the way Lila, Cooper and Nate was looking up at him at the tarmac, it looked like he was gonna be gone forever.

“Don’t forget about us, okay Uncle Tony?” Lila peered at him sadly, her brothers at her side. Cooper looked despondent and Nate’s eyes were misty.

“How could I ever forget about my little munchkins? And it’s not a goodbye forever, okay? I’ll be back by the time you’re finished with school this year and then we can go swim with the dolphins again, okay?” Tony said, kneeling to be at eye level with the kids.

They nodded, seemingly placated at knowing Tony wasn’t gonna be gone forever.

“Good. Now come here, gimme a hug.” They all rushed to him, and Tony had his arms full with his niece and nephews. “Love you, guys.” he murmured, kissing their heads one by one.

Clint came up to him next. The hugged and he heard Clint whispering something to him. “What was that, buddy?”

“Bring me back an “I heart NYC” t-shirt. My size is men’s medium.” Clint said seriously.

Tony rolled his eyes. He thought Clint was about to say something profoundly deep and moving about their friendship.

“Are those tears?” he teased Natasha next. Natasha has became more like a friend than an employee in the past year they have been acquainted with each other. She still scared the crap out of Tony, but in the midst of that fear was also a profound sense of affection, like ones siblings share.

“Tears of joy. I can’t wait to start my days lounging around your house and still getting paid the big bucks.” Natasha said primly.

“You know you’ll miss me.” Tony winked at her, “don’t even try to deny it.”

Quill came towards them carrying a big box with him followed by two men whose features Tony couldn’t make out from his position on the tarmac.

“Boss, where do you want this?” Quill asked as he approached them.

“I don’t even know what this is supposed to be. What the hell is this?”

“Spam and Reese’s,” a voice Tony never expect to ever heard again his life answered for him, “Sue and Nick sent their best.”

“Hey!” Tony saw Joe and Bucky behind Quill, “what the hell are you guys doing here?” Tony moved towards them, heart beating faster because if they’re here, then wouldn’t he be here too?

“Spoke to Sue yesterday. She said you’re heading back to New York today.” Joe explained.

“Well thank you, guys. It’s not a permanent thing, just for a couple of months until i can get this new project up and running.”

“That’s good, Tony. You’re getting back to the world, back to what you’re doing best. By the way, I got a little something for you,” Joe handed him a wrapped package. It looks like a CD from the shape of it, “from one mechanic to another.” he said.

“Thanks, Joe. I really appreciate it.” Tony conveyed his gratitude. And just to satisfy his curiosity, he asked, “how’s, uh, how’s Steve?”

“Steve’s actually living at the Institute now.” Joe answered.

“What? When did that happen?”

“Three weeks ago. Said he didn’t wanna be a burden to me and James anymore. I don’t know. He made up his mind. Ain’t nobody could change it once that kid made up his mind.” Joe continued, “You know what, he’s doing great over there. Started teaching art classes for the others and he gets to paint every day. Actually, I heard he’s even singing again.”

“That’s good. That’s great to hear.” Tony could feel the tell tale signs of a tear started to come from the corners of his eyes. He had to take a deep breath to will the tears not to fall. He’s not gonna cry in front of the father of the guy who dumped him.

“Listen Tony, you take care of yourself, okay? We’ll miss you, even if James would deny it to kingdom come.” Joe shook his hand, grinning cheekily at Bucky’s direction.

“Mahalo, Joe.”

“Hey Boss, I like Spam and Reese’s. Can I have it?” Quill was still holding the box containing Spam and Reese’s.

“I guess?”

“Sweet!”

\----

 

The plane was taxiing above the Pacific when Tony finally get a chance to open the present Joe handed to him. It turned out to be a Beach Boys CD. Tony could only chuckled sadly.

“How nice of that man to give me a CD of music that would remind me of all the wonderful times I shared with his son…” he said sarcastically, “What an ASSHOLE!”

Which didn’t explain why fifteen minutes later, he was playing the CD on blast, chugging champagne straight from the bottle, singing and crying to Wouldn’t it be nice.

“ _Wouldn’t it be nice, if we were older then we wouldn’t have to wait so long?_ ” Tony cry sang through the chorus, “ _No one’s gonna make it that much better, when we can say good night and stay together…_ ” more sobbing followed.

“Why? Why would you do this to me? You sick bastard!” he addressed the ceiling of the jet, unknowing as to who he was addressing his grievances to. Steve's dad or the God his mother believed in. He put his hand over his face and started thinking, “Wait, is he trying to tell me something?”

Then snippets of his conversations with Joe started coming back to the forefront of his mind.

_“He only sings on the day he meets you.”_   
_“I heard he’s even singing again.”_

“He remembers me?” Tony paused, “Holy shit, he remembers me!” Tony ran to the cockpit and demanded the pilot turn the jet around back to Honolulu.

\----

“Julia, that looks great.” Steve complemented one of his students as they attempted to paint a still-life of the flower bouquet and fruit basket display that was set up in front of them. Steve really liked teaching art and seeing how his students channel their unique perspective and life experiences into their art.

“Excuse me, what am I doing?” one of his students asked. The man has just drawn a stick figure on his canvas, and Steve was of the opinion that all art was good art, so he wasn’t about to tell this man that his drawing sucked.

“You’re painting a picture. And you’re doing an excellent job.” Steve smiled encouragingly.

“Oh, thanks!”

Downstairs, Tony was running like a bat out of hell to the Institute, rushing to get to Steve. When the concierge stopped him to ask what his business here was and whether he has an appointment he could only stammer.

“Wh-- my name-- uh my name is ---”

One of the concierge, the one Tony remembered greeted Steve on their last visit here, interjected, “Dude he forgot his name. It’s okay, Sir. Go on up. And good luck with your memory problem.”

Tony took that as an assent to go up and started running up the stairs, calling out Steve’s name as he went up.

“Steve!”

“Steve!”

“Steve Rogers!”

Until finally he reached the art room where Steve and his students were all gathered. And there he was, Tony thought, his Steve. Standing in the middle of the room in a blue shirt that accentuated his body perfectly. He looked confused by Tony’s appearance, his brow furrowed in that way that it always did whenever he encountered something he couldn’t figure out.

“Steve Rogers?” Tony tried again, stopping in front of him, “Can I ask you a question? do you know who I am?”

There was a tense moment where Steve didn’t remained silent. When he finally opened his mouth, all he had to say was, “No.”

“No?” Tony felt his heart dropped to his stomach though it was anatomically impossible, “that sucks.”

“What’s your name?” Steve looked at Tony curiously.

“I’m Tony.”

“Tony. I want to show you something. Will you come with me?” Steve gestured at Tony to follow him.

“Yeah.”

They walked towards the far side of the open floor art studio towards a door that Steve opened to reveal a large room with ample natural light filtering through, perfect for an art studio.

“This is my studio.” Steve motioned for Tony to enter after him.

And for the second time in his life, Tony was rendered speechless. Steve’s studio was filled with hundreds of sketches of his likeness. There were black and white pencil and charcoal sketches of Tony in myriad of poses. There were watercolor portraits of him hanging on the wall, and on the lines running across the room, fastened there by clothespins, waiting to dry. He saw an unfinished oil painting of himself in profile displayed prominently in the center of the room where Steve had set up his easel. On the far side of a room was an unfinished bust that closely resembled him. “Wow…” Steve’s studio was in essence a shrine to Tony.

“I don’t know who you are, Tony. But I dreamed about you every night. Every night when I fall asleep, I see your face. I see us doing things I don’t remember ever doing before. Why?” Steve’s soft baritone washed over him, imploring Tony to have an answer to his question.

“What would you say if I told you that notebook you read and write in every day, used to have a lot of stuff about me in it?

“I would say that that makes a lot of sense.” Steve smiled reassuringly.

“You erased me from your memory because you thought you were holding me back from having a fulfilled and happy live. But what you don’t understand is, a life without you would be meaningless because you’re the love of my life, the man of my dreams.” Tony motioned around to the artworks surrounding him, “and apparently I’m the man of yours.”

Steve smiled and took his hands, “Tony. Nice to meet you.”

“Steve, it’s nice to meet you too.”

And at that moment, everything was perfect. Steve moved closer to Tony and placed his arms around Tony’s waist. Then he angled his face towards Tony’s and pressed their lips together in a soft kiss that soothes every inch of Tony’s wounded soul. Tony sighed, melting into the kiss and leaning his body against Steve. He felt Steve bend at the waist, dipping Tony and deepening the kiss they shared. At this moment, his life was finally complete. Here in Steve’s arms Tony could finally breathe. 


	11. Somewhere Over the Rainbow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get your flu shot, guys. I can't emphasize this enough. 
> 
> Here's the epilogue!

 

_ Six Years Later… _

 

Steve woke up to the morning sun in a gradual slow awakening that accompanied a restful sleep. Once he opened his eyes, that was when he recognized that he was alone in bed. Looking around the room, he had to wait for a minute before he realized where he was. 

 

“Good morning, Sir.” A clear and cultured voice announced from the PA system, “Today is October 19th, 2023. You are in New York City and the weather outside is currently 50 degrees Fahrenheit.” 

 

JARVIS. Steve’s brain started to remember sluggishly. This was JARVIS’ voice. JARVIS was Tony’s AI. And Tony was…

 

Tony was his husband.  

 

“Sir, if I may direct your attention to the display in front of you.” JARVIS announced, “I will now play the necessary information needed before you start your day.” 

 

“Thank you, JARVIS.” Steve reciprocated. The chorus of Beach Boys’  _ Wouldn’t It Be Nice  _ played through the soundsystem, then on the holographics display he saw a newspaper article reporting the accident he and his father was involved in. The display went through a reenactment of what looked like his and Tony’s first meeting at the Hukilau Cafe. Then he saw himself and Tony out on a date, kissing and hugging each other, generally being disgusting with cute with each other. Steve smiled as he saw how enamored he was with the man he was holding in the video. Tony looked like he was having the time of his life. Pursing his lips up in an attempt to get Steve to kiss him which Steve was more than happy to do, sharing a big bowl of shaved ice at Ala Moana and having a bonfire party for two at Tony’s private beach in Kahala, the two of them snuggled up in a blanket. Steve remembered all of these events happening. 

 

Then the scene changed. They were in the backyard of Tony’s Kahala mansion. Tony and him were standing under a gazebo, facing each other and holding each other’s hands. They were both wearing Aloha shirts, Tony’s a dark red with gold koi fish while Steve’s was dark blue with red hibiscus. They were both wearing leis and had matching goofy grins on their faces. 

Then, someone who Steve was pretty sure was Peter Quill, Tony’s gardener and apparently wedding officiant, said, “Do you, Anthony Edward Stark, take this man, Steven Grant Rogers to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forth, as long as you both shall live?” 

 

Steve looked down at his left hand and noticed the silver, no,  _ palladium _ wedding ring on his left ring finger displayed prominently. He reverently touched the ring and brought his left hand toward his chest, cherishing the feeling of reassurance and wholeness he felt just by looking at it. It was a wonder that he ever forget how exhilarating and happy he felt when he was now married to the man of his dreams. 

 

“I do.” Tony said, grinning the whole time on screen. Steve saw himself on screen with a smile that threatened to break his face from how wide it was. 

 

“Really? I mean, I know Steve’s like super hot right now. I mean, I’m not gay, but gun to my head, sure.” Quill shrugged, “But in like 10, 15 years he could possibly let himself go, and then like, sex could be nauseating for you?” Quill asked, both Steve and Tony turning toward him frown marring their faces. 

 

“What are you crazy? You’re wife’s right over there.” Tony gestured towards Gamora, a beautiful tan skinned woman with long black hair, who was sitting in the audience flipping her middle finger at Quill. 

 

“I’m just kidding, Moomoo.” Quill chuckled nervously. 

 

Steve watched the whole exchange with an amused smile on his face. He remembered the whole event. Quill got in a trouble with his wife, Gamora, afterwards. Steve remembered her tackling him through the ice sculpture of a swan Steve wasn’t even sure why it was at their wedding in the first place. He didn’t remember ordering and Tony sure as hell didn’t either.  

 

On screen, Quill continued the wedding procession, “I now pronounce you husbands. You may kiss each other.” As they kissed on screen, the camera panned back to the audience. Steve saw his Dad, Sue and Nick in the audience. Clint and his children was also there, along with a slender African-American man Steve knew was Tony’s best friend, James Rhodes, sitting with a tall blonde woman who was dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. Steve remembered her to be Pepper Potts, the CEO of Stark Industries. He also saw Tony’s driver/bodyguard Happy Hogan, also trying hard to hold back his tears. He also saw Bucky, nestling up comfortably with Tony’s PA Natasha. Well, Steve was glad that his brother finally found someone. 

 

“Congratulations!” On screen they were walking back down the aisle, Tony’s hands tucked into Steve’s bent elbow, the guests throwing rice at them. 

 

The scene changed again, this time it was just Steve and Tony. Tony was reverently carrying a bundle in his arms, looking down at it. Steve’s heart skipped a beat at the sight. 

 

“JARVIS, that’s...” Steve sat up straighter, emotions welling up within him and he couldn’t finish his sentence. His words seemed to become lodged in his throat. 

 

“Yes, Sir. This is the first night when young Sir came home with you and Master Stark.” Steve barely registered his hands coming up to cover his mouth. A son, he and Tony had a son. 

 

“Hi Peter,” Tony whispered on screen, he was sitting on the couch, “you’re finally home, baby boy. Your papa and I have waited so long to meet you, baby boy.” Tony’s voice was full of awe and love, Steve never heard it before from him and found that he would be content living the rest of his life not hearing Tony say anything to him as long as he could hear Tony talk to Peter that way. 

 

JARVIS must have been recording the whole event through one of the many cameras installed in the mansion because Steve saw himself sat behind Tony, his arms enveloping the two most precious bundles in his life. “We love you, Peter. Papa will never forget you.” 

 

Tony looked up at him, a soft grin on his face. Then he pressed a kiss on Steve’s cheek. 

 

“Well, I’ll try, at least.” Steve said wryly, on screen. He saw Tony snuggled further in his embrace and himself tightening his hold on them, supporting Tony’s hold on Peter. Then the scene fades. 

 

“JARVIS, where are they?” 

 

“Both Master Tony and Young Sir are in the kitchen, attempting to cook breakfast.” JARVIS informed him. 

 

Steve chuckled. “Are you sure they’re not attempting to burn the tower down?” He slid out of bed and started his morning ablutions. Once finished, he left the room and walked to the kitchen where the loves of his life were currently at. 

 

“Heey, there he is. There’s Papa.” Tony’s voice greeted him as he entered the kitchen. A small brown head that was focused on playing his food from his high chair lifted up at his entry. Peter’s big brown bambi eyes focused on him and the brightest smile lit up his face. Steve didn’t think he’d ever seen anybody that delighted to see him. 

 

“Papa!” his son squealed. His threw up his arms in the air, begging Steve to pick him up from his high chair. Steve obliged, lifting his baby up and cradling him in his arms. Peter instinctively cuddled up to him, delighted at having his Papa carry him. 

 

“Morning, baby. How are you today?” Steve said to him, kissing the plump baby cheeks. 

 

Peter giggled as he felt Steve’s beard scratching his cheeks, “Brekkie. Daddy an me made brekkie, Papa.” he pointed at the mutilated waffle on his plastic plate. 

 

Steve grinned, walking towards Tony who was manning the waffle maker on their kitchen counter, “Morning, Peanut Butter cups.” he greeted Tony, giving his husband a light kiss on the lips. 

 

Tony grinned at him. Ever since Steve found out that Nick called Tony “Peanut Butter cups” because of the circumstances of their first meeting, Steve started adopting the nickname for his husband. “Hello, stranger. Everything good?” 

 

Tony always ask him that in the morning, he remembered now. Tony’s innate need to make sure that everything was alright in Steve’s head and by extension Steve’s world was one of the things that kept Steve falling in love with him day after day. 

 

“Yes, everything’s good, sweetheart.” 

 

Tony smiled again. They kissed again, and would have been kissing longer if Peter didn’t demand their attentions by smacking his pudgy hands on their cheeks and whining about how hungry he was. “Pa-pa! Dada! Hungy!” 

 

Steve chuckled, “Okay, baby. Let’s go feed you.” Steve pressed a kiss to Peter’s head and walked back to where Peter’s plate was. Tony continued making more waffles for him and Steve and once he cooked up all the batter, he brought his plate over to the counter where Steve was feeding Peter. 

 

Steve couldn’t have imagined his life just six years ago. After they got back together that day at the Institute where he showed Tony his studio and they ended up having sex on the floor, Tony insisted they would never part again. He canceled his trip back to the mainland, much to Steve’s consternation. Tony also asked Steve to move in with him instead of living at the Institute which Steve agreed to. They started living together then, Steve watching the DVDs again, only after he moved to Tony’s mansion, JARVIS started recording yesterday’s events for him to help him catch up better the next day. 

 

Six months after they started cohabitating, Steve’s friend Dr. Bruce Banner and his husband Thor Odinson moved back to Hawaii after Bruce decided to take a sabbatical and do his research back in Hawaii. When he came over to Kahala to catch up with Steve, he realized that his friend had shacked up with none other than Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, philanthropist. Tony and Bruce immediately became friends, bonding over their respective affinity for science, whatever field that may be. 

 

Within weeks of meeting each other, Bruce and Tony could be found holed up in the workshop for hours on end working on something or other. Steve was worried, only in the sense that those two would forget about things that were not immediately concerning their work and would forget minor things like food and sustenance. Steve had to utilize the emergency passcode a time or two to make them leave the workshop, and whenever Steve asked them what they were working on they stayed mum or try to change the subject of the conversation by asking Steve about his students at the Institute instead. 

 

A few months after that, Tony asked him to come to the workshop on one ordinary afternoon. Steve, who was a little bit worked up because one of his students had a meltdown on one of their sessions, was a bit upset when he got home only to find out that Tony was still in the workshop for nineteen hours straight. So when JARVIS informed him that Tony needed him downstairs in the workshop, he was ashamed to admit that he stomped down the stairs like a child. 

 

“What is this about, Tony? I had a long day, can you please make it quick?” Steve sighed. Tony was a sight, his eyes looked manic, his hair was oily and unkempt. His usually neatly shaved goatee was overgrown. He looked like a homeless man. And was starting to smell like one too. 

 

“Steve! Steve! Steve! Baby!” Tony spoke in rapid fire tone, “I finally did it!” 

 

“Did what, Tony? Be a billionaire beggar? Do you know how long you’ve been here? You’re a mess. How long has he been in the workshop, JARVIS?” 

 

“Nineteen hours, Master Rogers.” JARVIS announced. 

 

“I--really?” Tony stopped short and shook his head, “doesn’t matter, because I finally solved it! The riddle of your brain.” Steve’s lover grinned triumphantly. 

 

“The what? Tony, sweetheart, you’re not making any sense. Come on, come with me, take a shower and we can have a quick nap. Or long nap, for you.” Steve reached for Tony, trying to coax him out of the workshop. 

 

“No! Not yet. I wanna show you something.” he shrugged off Steve’s grip of his wrist only to grab Steve and drag him to the holodeck in the workshop. Tony tapped a few things and a holographic projection of a brain showed up. 

 

“What is this, Tony?” 

 

“This is your brain.” Tony explained, zooming in to the front part of the brain. “And this is the temporal lobe. Now Dr. Erskine said that there was too much scar tissue in your temporal lobe for it to be able to function properly, which is to store new information before converting it as long term memory in the hippocampus. But what if, we get rid of the scar tissue and induce neural regeneration in your brain?” 

 

“Is that possible?” Steve asked faintly. He had resigned himself to live this way his whole life, watching recordings of yesterday’s events before starting his day, getting to know Tony all over again. 

 

“Well, no.” Tony said succinctly. Steve looked at him with a confused frown on his face, wondering what was Tony’s whole point was, “at least not until today.” Tony grinned, he was basically bouncing on his feet in front of Steve at this point. 

“Tony, what are you saying?” Steve asked imploringly. 

 

“I’m saying I know how to fix this, Steve. Bruce and I have been working on this technology called nanites. They’re basically mini robots, but they measure in the nanoscale. You can’t see it with a naked eye, unless they were many of them. And by many I meant billions, okay? Now since they’re small, about the size of a human cell, they can get inside the body and basically do nanosurgery on human cells that until now are too delicate to be handled by microsurgery. Surgery on cells like neurons.” 

 

Steve remained silent. His hands were still holding Tony’s, as he slowly croaked out, “What does that mean, Tony?” 

 

“It means we can use the nanites on your temporal lobe, honey. We can fix some of the damage there. We can use the nanites to get rid of the scar tissues and deliver neural growth factors to regenerate the neurons in your temporal lobe.” 

 

Steve choked out a sob. He couldn’t do anything but stood there in shocked silence. Here he was, prepared to live life with his less than perfect condition. But Tony...Tony was determined to give Steve a fulfilled live. Even before today, Tony has done the unthinkable, giving Steve a semblance of normalcy. And now, he has gone above and beyond what anyone would have done for a loved one and Steve loved him so much. 

 

Steve rushed forward to kiss him, pouring every ounce of love, gratitude and affection to his lover. Tony pliantly melted in his arms, putting his arms around Steve’s neck and hitching his legs up Steve’s hips. They pulled apart after a while, but Steve didn’t release his hold from Tony. 

 

“I love you so much. I’ve never loved anyone as much as I loved you.” Steve told him breathlessly. 

 

“Hm, I’ll remind you you said that the next time you’re pissed at me for leaving wet towels on the bathroom floor.” Tony grinned cheekily, but the softness in his eyes belied his teasing. 

 

“Tony…” Steve leaned his forehead against Tony’s, “Love, thank you. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve someone as beautiful and wonderful as you in my life, but I will damn well do my best to make you happy and feel loved and cherished after everything that you’ve given me. You gave me my life back after months of being a dead man walking, and now you’re giving me a chance at a normal life. Tony, there are no words to describe how wonderful you are to me…”

 

“Just stay with me,” Tony said. His brown eyes, the eyes Steve was sure he fell in love with first, the eyes he never forget because he saw them every night in his dreams and haunted him to put it on paper, Tony’s brown eyes was misty with unshed tears and happiness. 

 

And Steve did. Six years later, the nanites and the operation enabled Steve to retain up to 70% of new information coming in. He remembered Tony all time now, and when Peter came to their lives, he remembered him too. There were still some new informations that he couldn’t remember, but those were usually trivial information like running out of sugar or forgetting where he put the keys. Important information, new information on events that happened after the accident were steadily accumulating and stored in his brain. He still watched the recordings in the morning because he wanted to re-experience the moments when he fell in love with Tony, their wedding and the day Peter was born. Tony called him a sap, but he said it in a way that Steve knew he was touched and might even swoon if no one was around to see it. 

 

So Steve’s life was pretty much perfect. He had his baby boy in his arms, babbling away as Steve fed him pieces of waffles, and his husband sitting across from him, enjoying their time together as a family. Steve felt himself falling in love anew with Tony and this life they built together. And if he forgot about it the next day, well Steve would always be willing to fall in love again with Tony. Every fucking day.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it, folks! 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has been with me since the beginning (you know who you are ;) ) Your comments and kudos gave me encouragements to keep writing this story to the end, and I love each and every one of you. 
> 
> Also, shout out to the one person who subscribed to me! I have more stories planned but it might be awhile before I can complete and publish it, since I'm trying to publish a paper for my research. But stick with me, babes! I will come through for you. 
> 
> Once again, thanks for reading this story!


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